American Express (NYSE:AXP) Holdings Cut by Pinnacle Bancorp Inc.

Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. lowered its stake in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) by 23.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 294 shares of the payment services company’s stock after selling 90 shares during the period. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc.’s holdings in American Express were worth $87,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in American Express by 0.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,483,512 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $3,104,735,000 after purchasing an additional 86,100 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of American Express by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,003,715 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $2,984,208,000 after purchasing an additional 866,110 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of American Express by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,606,986 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,249,415,000 after buying an additional 239,173 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of American Express by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,960,842 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,074,168,000 after buying an additional 33,193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of American Express by 12.7% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,203,772 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $655,137,000 after buying an additional 247,864 shares in the last quarter. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on AXP shares. BTIG Research cut shares of American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $230.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on shares of American Express from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com raised shares of American Express from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 11th. Truist Financial started coverage on American Express in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $350.00 price target for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on American Express from $301.00 to $307.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $278.09.

American Express Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AXP opened at $311.69 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $219.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.94, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.23. American Express has a one year low of $177.81 and a one year high of $314.00. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $298.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $270.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $0.22. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. The company had revenue of $16.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.68 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.30 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that American Express will post 13.48 EPS for the current year.

American Express Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 10th. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.60%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.26, for a total value of $21,049,740.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,656 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,176,150.56. This represents a 41.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Caillec Christophe Le sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.48, for a total value of $1,820,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,952,286.84. This represents a 48.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 96,998 shares of company stock worth $26,423,439 over the last quarter. 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.