American Express Company $AXP Stock Holdings Lessened by Bowen Hanes & Co. Inc.

Bowen Hanes & Co. Inc. trimmed its position in American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) by 1.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 332,134 shares of the payment services company’s stock after selling 4,250 shares during the quarter. American Express makes up approximately 2.5% of Bowen Hanes & Co. Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest holding. Bowen Hanes & Co. Inc.’s holdings in American Express were worth $89,361,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AXP. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in American Express in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,454,667,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its stake in 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 worth $1,293,259,000 after acquiring an additional 3,583,959 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in American Express by 13.7% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 18,025,562 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $4,849,777,000 after acquiring an additional 2,168,445 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in 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 worth $581,914,000 after acquiring an additional 2,155,045 shares during the period. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its stake in 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 worth $600,072,000 after acquiring an additional 1,568,747 shares during the period. 84.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at American Express

In other news, insider Laureen Seeger sold 16,998 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $294.83, for a total transaction of $5,011,520.34. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 9,001 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,653,764.83. This represents a 65.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Glenda G. Mcneal sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider directly owned 10,957 shares in the company, valued at $3,391,191.50. This trade 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 valued at $40,555,901 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on AXP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on American Express from $260.00 to $342.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of American Express in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of American Express from $371.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on American Express from $250.00 to $311.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, BTIG Research set a $277.00 price target on American Express and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, American Express has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $311.05.

American Express Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of AXP opened at $307.01 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $213.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.28. American Express Company has a 1 year low of $220.43 and a 1 year high of $329.14. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $307.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $289.90. 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 (NYSE:AXP) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $17.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.70 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 32.87% and a net margin of 14.78%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.49 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that American Express Company will post 15.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. American Express’s dividend payout ratio is 23.02%.

American Express 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.