Ameriprise Financial (NYSE:AMP) Board of Directors Announces Share Buyback Program

Ameriprise Financial (NYSE:AMP) announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, April 24th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $4.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 9.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on AMP shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $625.00 price target on shares of Ameriprise Financial in a report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group lowered Ameriprise Financial from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $580.00 to $570.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Ameriprise Financial from $507.00 to $542.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on shares of Ameriprise Financial from $570.00 to $520.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Ameriprise Financial from $415.00 to $442.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ameriprise Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $517.44.

Ameriprise Financial Stock Performance

NYSE:AMP opened at $473.04 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $488.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $522.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 0.59 and a quick ratio of 0.59. Ameriprise Financial has a 1-year low of $385.74 and a 1-year high of $582.05. The firm has a market cap of $45.32 billion, a PE ratio of 14.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.23.

Ameriprise Financial (NYSE:AMP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The financial services provider reported $9.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $9.17 by $0.33. Ameriprise Financial had a return on equity of 69.35% and a net margin of 19.70%. The company had revenue of $4.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.45 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Ameriprise Financial will post 38.64 EPS for the current year.

Ameriprise Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Ameriprise Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.91%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Robert Francis Sharpe, Jr. sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $523.12, for a total value of $523,120.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,231,200. This represents a 9.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Joseph Edward Sweeney sold 4,636 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $539.07, for a total value of $2,499,128.52. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,901,249.59. The trade was a 39.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,636 shares of company stock worth $6,263,989 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.73% of the company’s stock.

About Ameriprise Financial

Ameriprise Financial, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides various financial products and services to individual and institutional clients in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: Advice & Wealth Management, Asset Management, Retirement & Protection Solutions, and Corporate & Other.