Buckley Wealth Management LLC Invests $232,000 in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Buckley Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in American Express (NYSE:AXP) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 1,237 shares of the payment services company’s stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in American Express by 2.1% during the second quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 20,444 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $3,561,000 after acquiring an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in American Express by 25.0% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 499,340 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $74,584,000 after acquiring an additional 99,813 shares in the last quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in American Express by 7.6% during the second quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 1,785,141 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $310,971,000 after acquiring an additional 125,990 shares in the last quarter. GYL Financial Synergies LLC lifted its holdings in American Express by 1.0% during the third quarter. GYL Financial Synergies LLC now owns 23,987 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $3,579,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in American Express by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,574,663 shares of the payment services company’s stock worth $294,856,000 after acquiring an additional 102,132 shares in the last quarter. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on AXP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised American Express from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $167.00 to $205.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. DZ Bank downgraded American Express from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Stephens raised American Express from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $148.00 to $193.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. StockNews.com raised American Express from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on American Express from $186.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 18th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $189.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Express

In other news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total transaction of $14,774,215.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares in the company, valued at $26,022,097.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total transaction of $14,774,215.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares in the company, valued at $26,022,097.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Howard Grosfield sold 7,029 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.65, for a total transaction of $1,431,455.85. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 12,388 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,522,816.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 172,047 shares of company stock worth $36,528,388 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

American Express Price Performance

Shares of AXP stock traded up $3.33 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $227.79. The company had a trading volume of 2,152,942 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,174,235. American Express has a one year low of $140.91 and a one year high of $231.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.71, a quick ratio of 1.63 and a current ratio of 1.63. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $210.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $180.31.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 26th. The payment services company reported $2.62 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.64 by ($0.02). American Express had a net margin of 13.84% and a return on equity of 30.99%. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.07 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that American Express will post 12.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Express Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.18%. American Express’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.41%.

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.