Roberts Capital Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 2,263 American Express Company (NYSE:AXP)

Key Points

• Roberts Capital Advisors LLC recently acquired 2,263 shares of American Express, valued at approximately $609,000, marking a significant new investment in the company.
• American Express reported $4.08 earnings per share for its last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations, with a year-over-year revenue increase of 9.3%.
• Insider trading activity included notable sales, with two executives selling a total of 134,219 shares valued at over $40 million in recent months.

Roberts Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 2,263 shares of the payment services company's stock, valued at approximately $609,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of American Express in the first quarter valued at about $1,454,667,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its stake in shares of American Express by 463.3% in 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 valued at $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% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,162,846 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $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% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 2,986,710 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $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% in the fourth quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 2,021,873 shares of the payment services company's stock valued at $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.

Insider Transactions at American Express

In other news, insider Laureen Seeger sold 61,721 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 9,001 shares in the company, valued at $2,677,527.47. This trade represents a 87.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Glenda G. Mcneal sold 50,000 shares of American Express stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.50, for a total value of $15,475,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 10,957 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,391,191.50. This represents a 82.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 134,219 shares of company stock worth $40,555,901 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.20% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AXP has been the subject of several research reports. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of American Express in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of American Express from $260.00 to $342.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of American Express from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $270.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of American Express from $360.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, BTIG Research set a $277.00 price target on shares of American Express and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $311.05.

American Express Stock Down 0.8%

NYSE:AXP opened at $305.36 on Friday. American Express Company has a 12-month low of $220.43 and a 12-month high of $329.14. The company has a quick ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $212.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.28. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $307.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $290.34.

American Express (NYSE:AXP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 18th. The payment services company reported $4.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.22. American Express had a return on equity of 32.87% and a net margin of 14.78%. The business had revenue of $17.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.49 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were given a $0.82 dividend. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. American Express's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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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