Applied Finance Capital Management LLC Purchases New Position in American Express Company $AXP

Key Points

• Applied Finance Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake of 7,779 shares in American Express, valued at approximately $2,481,000 in the second quarter.
• American Express recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.82, with a yield of 1.0%, set to be paid on November 10th.
• Analysts have set new price targets for American Express, with Wells Fargo raising it from $350 to $375 and overall consensus rating being a "Hold" with a price target of $323.60.

Applied Finance Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 7,779 shares of the payment services company's stock, valued at approximately $2,481,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of American Express by 24.4% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,481 shares of the payment services company's stock worth $1,924,000 after acquiring an additional 1,273 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of American Express by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,039 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $2,163,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of American Express by 22.2% during the 1st quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,549 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $957,000 after purchasing an additional 644 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in American Express by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 4,154 shares of the payment services company's stock worth $1,118,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Institute for Wealth Management LLC. boosted its stake in American Express by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. now owns 9,599 shares of the payment services company's stock worth $2,583,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the period. 84.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AXP. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on American Express from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of American Express from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of American Express from $348.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, September 15th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of American Express from $297.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock a "cautious" rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt lowered shares of American Express from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $323.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 112,272 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.86, for a total transaction of $37,034,041.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 92,810 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,614,306.60. This represents a 54.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Laureen Seeger sold 61,721 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.47, for a total value of $18,360,145.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 9,001 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,677,527.47. The trade was a 87.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 269,996 shares of company stock valued at $85,261,270 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.20% of the company's stock.

American Express Trading Down 2.1%

Shares of American Express stock opened at $323.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.60. American Express Company has a 1 year low of $220.43 and a 1 year high of $349.19. The firm has a market cap of $225.19 billion, a PE ratio of 22.71, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $324.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $301.57.

American Express (NYSE:AXP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 18th. The payment services company reported $4.08 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.86 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $17.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.70 billion. American Express had a net margin of 14.78% and a return on equity of 32.87%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.49 EPS. Analysts expect that American Express Company will post 15.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a $0.82 dividend. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. American Express's dividend payout ratio is currently 23.02%.

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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