Balentine LLC Boosts Holdings in American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP)

Balentine LLC grew its stake in American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) by 28.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,147 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,130 shares during the period. Balentine LLC’s holdings in American Electric Power were worth $418,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AEP. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in American Electric Power by 14.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 28,591,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,150,657,000 after buying an additional 3,589,451 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in 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 during the period. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd raised its stake in American Electric Power by 70.7% during the third quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,953,072 shares of the company’s stock worth $145,835,000 after purchasing an additional 809,067 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in American Electric Power by 18.1% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 4,311,429 shares of the company’s stock worth $324,304,000 after purchasing an additional 660,599 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 14,892,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,120,240,000 after acquiring an additional 587,145 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of 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. StockNews.com raised shares of American Electric Power from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH downgraded shares of American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $75.50 to $73.00 in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, American Electric Power currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $88.43.

American Electric Power Trading Up 0.0 %

NASDAQ AEP opened at $92.62 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. American Electric Power Company, Inc. has a 52 week low of $69.38 and a 52 week high of $93.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.82 billion, a PE ratio of 17.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $85.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $82.26.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $1.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business 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 business posted $1.11 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that American Electric Power Company, Inc. will post 5.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Electric Power Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be issued a $0.88 dividend. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. American Electric Power’s payout ratio is 65.31%.

American Electric Power 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.