Insight Wealth Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 777 American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Insight Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in American Express (NYSE:AXP) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 777 shares of the payment services company’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of American Express by 8.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,003,715 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $2,984,208,000 after buying an additional 866,110 shares during the period. Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of American Express by 22.2% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,129,175 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $485,525,000 after purchasing an additional 387,166 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its stake in American Express by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,682,959 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $456,418,000 after buying an additional 7,676 shares during the period. Smead Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of American Express by 3.5% in the third quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,629,480 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $441,915,000 after acquiring an additional 54,958 shares in the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc increased its position in shares of American Express by 2.2% during the third quarter. abrdn plc now owns 1,270,814 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $343,437,000 after acquiring an additional 27,859 shares during the period. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AXP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res cut American Express from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of American Express from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of American Express from $248.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of American Express from $263.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, BTIG Research cut shares of American Express from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $230.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $253.09.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Express

In other news, insider Anre D. Williams sold 77,887 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 111,656 shares in the company, valued at $30,176,150.56. This represents a 41.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of American Express stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total value of $3,552,818.78. Following the sale, the insider now owns 109,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,724,067.18. This represents a 10.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.11% of the company’s stock.

American Express Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:AXP opened at $305.60 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $215.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.49, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.21. American Express has a fifty-two week low of $163.32 and a fifty-two week high of $306.97. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $277.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $254.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The payment services company reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $16.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.68 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 32.46% and a net margin of 15.32%. American Express’s revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.30 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that American Express will post 13.4 earnings per share for the current year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. American Express’s payout ratio is currently 20.60%.

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.