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How to buy American Express Company stock | $97.75
Own American Express Company stock in just a few minutes.
American Express Company is a credit services business based in the US. American Express Company shares (AXP) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. American Express Company employs 64,000 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$34.3 billion.
How to buy shares in American Express Company
- Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
- Search for American Express Company Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: AXP. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until American Express Company reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$97.75, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of American Express Company, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of American Express Company. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.
What's in this guide?
- AXP shares summary
- Compare share dealing platforms
- Is AXP stock a buy or sell?
- Stock performance over time
- Can I short AXP shares?
- Is AXP suitable for ethical investing?
- Are AXP shares over-valued?
- American Express Company's financials
- How volatile are AXP shares?
- Does American Express Company pay a dividend?
- Have AXP shares ever split?
- Other common questions
American Express Company share price
Use our graph to track the performance of AXP stocks over time.American Express Company shares at a glance
Information last updated 2020-09-25.
| Latest market close | USD$97.75 |
|---|---|
| 52-week range | USD$67 - USD$138.04 |
| 50-day moving average | USD$101.0029 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$94.1478 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$104.32 |
| PE ratio | 19.7847 |
| Dividend yield | USD$1.72 (1.8%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$4.862 |
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Is it a good time to buy American Express Company stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.
American Express Company price performance over time
Historical closes compared with the close of $97.75 from 2020-09-29
| 1 week (2020-09-23) | 2.29% |
|---|---|
| 1 month (2020-08-28) | -4.67% |
| 3 months (2020-06-30) | 2.68% |
| 6 months (2020-03-30) | 8.29% |
| 1 year (2019-09-30) | -17.36% |
|---|---|
| 2 years (2018-09-28) | -8.21% |
| 3 years (2017-09-29) | 8.06% |
| 5 years (2015-09-30) | 31.86% |
Is American Express Company under- or over-valued?
Valuing American Express Company stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of American Express Company's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
American Express Company's P/E ratio
American Express Company's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 20x. In other words, American Express Company shares trade at around 20x recent earnings.
That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.
American Express Company's PEG ratio
American Express Company's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.6156. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into American Express Company's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
American Express Company financials
| Revenue TTM | USD$34.3 billion |
|---|---|
| Operating margin TTM | 16.05% |
| Gross profit TTM | USD$27.3 billion |
| Return on assets TTM | 2.11% |
| Return on equity TTM | 18.45% |
| Profit margin | 11.89% |
| Book value | $26.164 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$76.9 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting American Express Company shares
There are currently 11.1 million American Express Company shares held short by investors – that's known as American Express Company's "short interest". This figure is 19.9% up from 9.2 million last month.
There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting American Express Company shares can be evaluated.
American Express Company's "short interest ratio" (SIR)
American Express Company's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of American Express Company shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of American Express Company shares traded daily (recently around 3.7 million). American Express Company's SIR currently stands at 3. In other words for every 100,000 American Express Company shares traded daily on the market, roughly 3000 shares are currently held short.
However American Express Company's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of American Express Company shares, or, against the total number of tradable American Express Company shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case American Express Company's short interest could be expressed as 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 American Express Company shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.017% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable American Express Company shares, roughly 17 shares are currently held short).
Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against American Express Company.
Find out more about how you can short American Express Company stock.
American Express Company's environmental, social and governance track record
Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like American Express Company.
When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.
American Express Company's total ESG risk score
Total ESG risk: 23.27
Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and American Express Company's overall score of 23.27 (as at 08/01/2020) is pretty good – landing it in it in the 26th percentile of companies rated in the same sector.
ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like American Express Company is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).
American Express Company's environmental score
Environmental score: 4.55/100
American Express Company's environmental score of 4.55 puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that American Express Company is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.
American Express Company's social score
Social score: 15.43/100
American Express Company's social score of 15.43 puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that American Express Company is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.
American Express Company's governance score
Governance score: 12.8/100
American Express Company's governance score puts it squarely in the 7th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that American Express Company is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.
American Express Company's controversy score
Controversy score: 3/5
ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. American Express Company scored a 3 out of 5 for controversy – a middle-of-the-table result reflecting that American Express Company hasn't always managed to keep its nose clean.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary
American Express Company was last rated for ESG on: 2020-08-01.
| Total ESG score | 23.27 |
|---|---|
| Total ESG percentile | 25.64 |
| Environmental score | 4.55 |
| Environmental score percentile | 7 |
| Social score | 15.43 |
| Social score percentile | 7 |
| Governance score | 12.8 |
| Governance score percentile | 7 |
| Level of controversy | 3 |
American Express Company share dividends
Dividend payout ratio: 35.61% of net profits
Recently American Express Company has paid out, on average, around 35.61% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 1.8% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), American Express Company shareholders could enjoy a 1.8% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In American Express Company's case, that would currently equate to about $1.72 per share.
While American Express Company's payout ratio might seem fairly standard, it's worth remembering that American Express Company may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.
American Express Company's most recent dividend payout was on 10 August 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 1 July 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").
Have American Express Company's shares ever split?
American Express Company's shares were split on a 10000:8753 basis on 3 October 2005. So if you had owned 8753 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 10000 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your American Express Company shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 12.5% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for American Express Company shares which in turn could have impacted American Express Company's share price.
American Express Company share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, American Express Company's shares have ranged in value from as little as $67 up to $138.04. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while American Express Company's is 1.1433. This would suggest that American Express Company's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).
American Express Company overview
American Express Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides charge and credit payment card products, and travel-related services worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Global Consumer Services Group, Global Commercial Services, and Global Merchant and Network Services. Its products and services include payment and financing products; network services; expense management products and services; and lifestyle services. The company's products and services also comprise merchant acquisition and processing, servicing and settlement, point-of-sale marketing, and information products and services for merchants; and fraud prevention services, as well as the design and operation of customer loyalty programs. It sells its products and services to consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations through mobile and online applications, third-party vendors and business partners, direct mail, telephone, in-house sales teams, and direct response advertising. American Express Company was founded in 1850 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
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