American Express Continues March Higher (AXP)

American Express (NYSE: AXP) continues to surge higher, making another 52-week high today at $39.86 before closing at $39.80. The chart is simply a thing of beauty and options traders appear to be on top of the situation.

More than 61,000 options contracts in American Express changed hands today, more than double the daily average. The stock responded accordingly, trading on about 10% higher than average volume.

The put/call open interest ratio for AXP stands at 1.02, which is lower than 98% of all those taken during the past 12 months, signaling options traders are optimistic about a move higher in AXP.

Oddly enough, more than half of the analysts that track American Express rate the stock "hold" or worse so an analyst upgrade or two could send the shares even higher.