3Chopt Investment Partners LLC Buys Shares of 6,491 American Express Company (NYSE:AXP)

3Chopt Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 6,491 shares of the payment services company's stock, valued at approximately $1,746,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AXP. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in American Express in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,785,867,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its stake in shares of American Express by 463.3% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 4,357,487 shares of the payment services company's stock worth $1,293,259,000 after buying an additional 3,583,959 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of American Express by 27,625.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,162,846 shares of the payment services company's stock worth $581,914,000 after buying an additional 2,155,045 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of American Express by 186.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 2,986,710 shares of the payment services company's stock worth $886,426,000 after buying an additional 1,943,463 shares during the period. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of American Express by 346.2% during the fourth quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 2,021,873 shares of the payment services company's stock worth $600,072,000 after buying an additional 1,568,747 shares during the period. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AXP has been the subject of several research reports. BTIG Research lowered their price objective on shares of American Express from $272.00 to $240.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of American Express from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $255.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Argus downgraded shares of American Express from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of American Express in a report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of American Express from $367.00 to $330.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, American Express has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $296.05.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Howard Grosfield sold 9,450 shares of American Express stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.50, for a total value of $2,603,475.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 9,402 shares in the company, valued at $2,590,251. This trade represents a 50.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Glenda G. Mcneal sold 3,019 shares of American Express stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.66, for a total transaction of $799,008.54. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 10,919 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,889,822.54. This trade represents a 21.66% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.20% of the company's stock.

American Express Stock Up 1.9%

AXP opened at $317.48 on Friday. American Express Company has a fifty-two week low of $220.43 and a fifty-two week high of $326.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.57 and a current ratio of 1.58. The company has a fifty day moving average of $288.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $289.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $222.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.17, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.25.

American Express (NYSE:AXP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 17th. The payment services company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.47 by $0.17. American Express had a net margin of 15.31% and a return on equity of 32.48%. The company had revenue of $16.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.33 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that American Express Company will post 15.33 earnings per share for the current year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.03%. American Express's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.91%.

American Express Company Profile

American Express Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as integrated payments company in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean, and Internationally. It operates through four segments: U.S. Consumer Services, Commercial Services, International Card Services, and Global Merchant and Network Services.

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