American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) Reaches New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday after BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on the stock from $105.00 to $109.00. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the stock. American Electric Power traded as high as $104.41 and last traded at $103.90, with a volume of 31877 shares. The stock had previously closed at $103.66.

A number of other research firms have also commented on AEP. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $91.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $101.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of American Electric Power from $99.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of American Electric Power from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $95.15.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AEP. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,630,436 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,273,181,000 after purchasing an additional 405,114 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 8,586,577 shares of the company’s stock worth $739,303,000 after purchasing an additional 776,965 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,378,543 shares of the company’s stock worth $296,433,000 after purchasing an additional 35,769 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 542.4% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,282,571 shares of the company’s stock worth $193,541,000 after purchasing an additional 1,927,234 shares during the period. Finally, Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of American Electric Power during the 4th quarter valued at about $175,667,000. Institutional investors own 75.24% of the company’s stock.

American Electric Power Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.65. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $96.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $89.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.54.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.02. American Electric Power had a net margin of 13.52% and a return on equity of 11.31%. The business had revenue of $4.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.74 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.13 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that American Electric Power Company, Inc. will post 5.59 earnings per share for the current year.

American Electric Power Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be given a $0.88 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.39%. 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.