NEW YORK (TheStreet) --Shares of American Express Co. (AXP) - Get Report are up 1.96% to $81.01 in morning trading today as the company plans to increase its quarterly dividend to 29 cents per share beginning with the second quarter 2015, and repurchase up to $6.6 billion of common shares beginning in second quarter of 2015 through and including the second quarter of 2016.

The New York City-based company said late yesterday that the Fed did not object to its capital plan submitted on January 5 as part of the 2015 Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR), which included the dividend increase and share buyback.

The timing and amount of common shares purchased under the company's authorized capital plan will depend on various factors, including the AXP's business plans, financial performance and market conditions.

As previously disclosed, AXP aims to return, on average and over time, approximately 50% of the capital it generates to shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks.

Given its strong capital ratios, relatively low levels of acquisitions, and a spend-centric business model that generates "modest" balance sheet growth, AXP has been able to return substantially more than this target over the last three years.

American Express is a global services company whose principal products and services are charge and credit payment card products and travel-related services offered to consumers and businesses worldwide.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates AMERICAN EXPRESS CO as a Buy with a ratings score of A-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate AMERICAN EXPRESS CO (AXP) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its notable return on equity, good cash flow from operations, increase in net income, growth in earnings per share and reasonable valuation levels. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. When compared to other companies in the Consumer Finance industry and the overall market, AMERICAN EXPRESS CO's return on equity exceeds that of the industry average and significantly exceeds that of the S&P 500.
• Net operating cash flow has significantly increased by 598.83% to $2,404.00 million when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, AMERICAN EXPRESS CO has also vastly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of 259.70%.
• The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the Consumer Finance industry average, but is less than that of the S&P 500. The net income increased by 10.6% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $1,308.00 million to $1,447.00 million.
• Regardless of the drop in revenue, the company managed to outperform against the industry average of 7.5%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 2.4%. The declining revenue has not hurt the company's bottom line, with increasing earnings per share.
• AMERICAN EXPRESS CO has improved earnings per share by 14.9% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. However, we anticipate underperformance relative to this pattern in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, AMERICAN EXPRESS CO increased its bottom line by earning $5.55 versus $4.88 in the prior year. For the next year, the market is expecting a contraction of 0.9% in earnings ($5.50 versus $5.55).
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: AXP Ratings Report