American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) Given New $95.00 Price Target at BMO Capital Markets

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

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group downgraded American Electric Power from a neutral rating to a sell rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $86.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on American Electric Power from $92.00 to $86.00 and set a sector outperform rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Cfra reissued a buy rating and issued a $92.00 price objective (up from $90.00) on shares of American Electric Power in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. StockNews.com downgraded American Electric Power from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on American Electric Power from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. 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 MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $87.07.

American Electric Power Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ AEP opened at $88.15 on Wednesday. American Electric Power has a 12 month low of $69.38 and a 12 month high of $92.89. The company has a market cap of $46.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.74, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $83.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $80.72.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.02. American Electric Power had a return on equity of 11.04% and a net margin of 11.64%. The business had revenue of $5 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.11 earnings per share. American Electric Power’s revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that American Electric Power will post 5.54 EPS for the current year.

American Electric Power Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.88 per share. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.99%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. American Electric Power’s dividend payout ratio is 82.82%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AEP. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 14.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 3,589,451 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new stake in American Electric Power in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $175,667,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in American Electric Power by 13.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,798,204 shares of the company’s stock valued at $737,021,000 after buying an additional 1,181,706 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in American Electric Power by 67.7% in the 4th quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,586,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $210,055,000 after buying an additional 1,043,885 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd grew its holdings in American Electric Power by 70.7% in the 3rd quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,953,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $145,835,000 after buying an additional 809,067 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.