Tower Wealth Partners Inc. Buys New Stake in American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Tower Wealth Partners Inc. purchased a new position in shares of American Express (NYSE:AXP) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,541 shares of the payment services company’s stock, valued at approximately $418,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of American Express in the third quarter worth about $238,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in American Express by 41.4% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 5,905 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,601,000 after acquiring an additional 1,730 shares during the period. Weatherly Asset Management L. P. acquired a new stake in shares of American Express during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $689,000. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in shares of American Express by 30.3% during the 3rd quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 11,678 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $3,167,000 after purchasing an additional 2,715 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chapman Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of American Express by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Chapman Investment Management LLC now owns 21,381 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $5,799,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on AXP. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of American Express from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. HSBC lowered American Express from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $265.00 to $270.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered American Express from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $268.00 to $286.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on American Express from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on American Express from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, American Express has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $253.09.

Insider Buying and Selling at American Express

In other news, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total transaction of $3,552,818.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 109,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,724,067.18. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster sold 13,111 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.98, for a total value of $3,552,818.78. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 109,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,724,067.18. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 transaction, the insider now owns 111,656 shares in the company, valued at $30,176,150.56. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

American Express Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of AXP stock opened at $272.69 on Friday. 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 has a twelve month low of $148.33 and a twelve month high of $286.36. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $266.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $247.24. The stock has a market cap of $192.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.07, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.21.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $16.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.68 billion. American Express had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 32.46%. American Express’s revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.30 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that American Express will post 13.41 earnings per share for the current year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.03%. American Express’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.60%.

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.