Patten & Patten Inc. TN Sells 50 Shares of American Express Company $AXP

Patten & Patten Inc. TN lowered its holdings in shares of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,040 shares of the payment services company’s stock after selling 50 shares during the period. Patten & Patten Inc. TN’s holdings in American Express were worth $1,608,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of American Express during the 1st quarter valued at $29,000. Hughes Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of American Express during the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. 1 North Wealth Services LLC bought a new position in shares of American Express during the 1st quarter valued at $37,000. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC bought a new position in shares of American Express during the 2nd quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Abound Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of American Express during the 1st quarter valued at $41,000. Institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at American Express

In related news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 112,272 shares of American Express stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.86, for a total transaction of $37,034,041.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 92,810 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,614,306.60. This trade represents a 54.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Glenda G. Mcneal sold 50,000 shares of American Express stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.50, for a total transaction of $15,475,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 10,957 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,391,191.50. This trade represents a 82.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 269,996 shares of company stock worth $85,261,270 over the last 90 days. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $327.00 target price (up previously from $300.00) on shares of American Express in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Barclays raised their price target on shares of American Express from $297.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock a “cautious” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of American Express from $330.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of American Express from $371.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of American Express from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, American Express has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $323.60.

American Express Trading Down 2.1%

NYSE:AXP opened at $323.60 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $324.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $301.57. American Express Company has a 12 month low of $220.43 and a 12 month high of $349.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. The stock has a market cap of $225.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.29.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last posted its earnings results on Friday, July 18th. The payment services company reported $4.08 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.86 by $0.22. American Express had a net margin of 14.78% and a return on equity of 32.87%. The firm had revenue of $17.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.49 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that American Express Company will post 15.33 EPS for the current year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a $0.82 dividend. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.02%.

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.