Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 100,676 shares of the payment services company’s stock after selling 259 shares during the quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in American Express were worth $27,303,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in American Express by 8.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,447,441 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $1,923,399,000 after purchasing an additional 662,382 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,595,370 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $590,940,000 after acquiring an additional 195,876 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 22.2% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,129,175 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $485,525,000 after acquiring an additional 387,166 shares during the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd bought a new stake in shares of American Express in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $433,709,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 14.2% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,798,742 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $408,494,000 after acquiring an additional 224,079 shares during the last quarter. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AXP. Barclays boosted their price target on American Express from $223.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on American Express from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on American Express from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on American Express from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, BTIG Research lowered American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $230.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $242.33.

American Express Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of AXP stock opened at $276.79 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $261.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $243.78. American Express has a fifty-two week low of $140.91 and a fifty-two week high of $286.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last announced its earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.22. American Express had a return on equity of 32.94% and a net margin of 15.53%. The business had revenue of $16.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.68 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.30 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that American Express will post 13.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. American Express’s dividend payout ratio is 23.06%.

About American Express

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.