American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) PT Raised to $95.00 at BMO Capital Markets

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) had its target price raised by BMO Capital Markets from $93.00 to $95.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on AEP. Cfra restated a buy rating and set a $92.00 price objective (up from $90.00) on shares of American Electric Power in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. Mizuho lowered shares of American Electric Power from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $83.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Guggenheim lowered American Electric Power from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $81.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH cut American Electric Power from a neutral rating to a sell rating and reduced their target price for the company from $75.50 to $73.00 in a report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, UBS Group lowered American Electric Power from a neutral rating to a sell rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $86.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, American Electric Power currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $88.14.

American Electric Power Stock Up 0.4 %

AEP opened at $88.60 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $84.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $80.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.54. American Electric Power has a fifty-two week low of $69.38 and a fifty-two week high of $92.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.44, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.50.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $1.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.02. American Electric Power had a return on equity of 11.23% and a net margin of 14.60%. The company had revenue of $5 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.11 EPS. American Electric Power’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that American Electric Power will post 5.58 earnings per share for the current year.

American Electric Power Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be issued a $0.88 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.97%. American Electric Power’s payout ratio is 65.31%.

Institutional Trading of American Electric Power

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Richardson Financial Services Inc. grew its position in American Electric Power by 3.9% in the first quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 3,084 shares of the company’s stock worth $266,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the period. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of American Electric Power during the 1st quarter worth about $1,453,000. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors purchased a new stake in American Electric Power in the 1st quarter valued at about $500,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lifted its position in American Electric Power by 7.3% in the first quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 6,483 shares of the company’s stock valued at $558,000 after buying an additional 439 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC boosted its stake in American Electric Power by 4.5% during the first quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 1,078,125 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,827,000 after buying an additional 46,702 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.24% of the company’s stock.

American Electric Power Company Profile

American Electric Power Company, Inc, an electric public utility holding company, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers in the United States. It operates through Vertically Integrated Utilities, Transmission and Distribution Utilities, AEP Transmission Holdco, and Generation & Marketing segments.