Chesapeake Wealth Management Lowers Position in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Chesapeake Wealth Management lessened its holdings in American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 3.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,272 shares of the payment services company’s stock after selling 223 shares during the period. Chesapeake Wealth Management’s holdings in American Express were worth $1,861,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Reliant Investment Management LLC increased its stake in American Express by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Reliant Investment Management LLC now owns 26,084 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $7,741,000 after acquiring an additional 435 shares during the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in American Express by 22.1% in the fourth quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,060 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $611,000 after acquiring an additional 373 shares during the last quarter. Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in American Express by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,627 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $483,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in American Express by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 5,074 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,506,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zhang Financial LLC increased its stake in American Express by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 9,446 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $2,804,000 after acquiring an additional 724 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on AXP shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on American Express from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. BTIG Research cut American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on American Express in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $350.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com raised American Express from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 11th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on American Express from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $278.09.

American Express Stock Performance

Shares of AXP opened at $312.75 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63. American Express has a one year low of $177.81 and a one year high of $315.40. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $299.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $272.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.32 billion, a PE ratio of 23.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.23.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.22. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. The firm had revenue of $16.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.68 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.30 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that American Express will post 13.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.90%. American Express’s payout ratio is 20.60%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total transaction of $3,552,818.78. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 109,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,724,067.18. This trade represents a 10.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total transaction of $1,820,880.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,952,286.84. This trade represents a 48.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.11% of the company’s stock.

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.