E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Decreases Stock Holdings in American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) by 7.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,226 shares of the company’s stock after selling 440 shares during the quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in American Electric Power were worth $424,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 28,591,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,150,657,000 after purchasing an additional 3,589,451 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in American Electric Power by 4.1% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 14,892,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,120,240,000 after buying an additional 587,145 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of American Electric Power by 13.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,798,204 shares of the company’s stock worth $737,021,000 after purchasing an additional 1,181,706 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 5.1% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 7,714,823 shares of the company’s stock worth $580,308,000 after buying an additional 374,300 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in American Electric Power by 2.3% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,428,035 shares of the company’s stock valued at $333,077,000 after purchasing an additional 98,897 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AEP. Mizuho downgraded American Electric Power from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $83.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on American Electric Power from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on American Electric Power from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. StockNews.com upgraded American Electric Power from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on American Electric Power from $84.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $88.14.

American Electric Power Price Performance

Shares of AEP stock traded up $0.37 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $90.95. 2,464,183 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,717,180. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market cap of $47.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.50. American Electric Power Company, Inc. has a 52 week low of $69.38 and a 52 week high of $92.10. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $84.52 and its 200-day moving average is $81.22.

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

American Electric Power Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.88 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.87%. American Electric Power’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.31%.

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.