American Express (NYSE:AXP) Given New $226.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

American Express (NYSE:AXP) had its price objective boosted by Morgan Stanley from $222.00 to $226.00 in a research report released on Monday, Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the payment services company’s stock.

AXP has been the subject of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of American Express from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of American Express from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and set a $190.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of American Express from $214.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of American Express from $220.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of American Express from $188.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, American Express currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $208.24.

American Express Price Performance

AXP stock opened at $232.88 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $220.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $189.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $168.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. American Express has a 52 week low of $140.91 and a 52 week high of $235.37.

American Express (NYSE:AXP) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The payment services company reported $3.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.36. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.79 billion. American Express had a net margin of 14.50% and a return on equity of 32.39%. The business’s revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.40 EPS. Analysts anticipate that American Express will post 12.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

American Express Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. American Express’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.06%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total value of $14,774,215.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 122,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,022,097.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Laureen Seeger sold 84,420 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $212.98, for a total value of $17,979,771.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 57,512 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,248,905.76. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Stephen J. Squeri sold 69,356 shares of American Express stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $213.02, for a total transaction of $14,774,215.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 122,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,022,097.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 172,047 shares of company stock worth $36,528,388 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.11% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of American Express

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AXP. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in American Express during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,112,747,000. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in American Express during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $210,540,000. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in American Express by 62.1% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,399,494 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $449,521,000 after acquiring an additional 919,337 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in American Express by 1,313.2% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 768,769 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $1,440,210,000 after acquiring an additional 714,370 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in American Express by 21.1% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,839,276 shares of the payment services company’s stock valued at $713,202,000 after acquiring an additional 667,695 shares during the period. 84.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

American Express Company 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.