American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the fifteen ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $98.00.

AEP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of American Electric Power from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on American Electric Power from $111.00 to $104.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on American Electric Power from $97.00 to $96.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on American Electric Power from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of American Electric Power from $109.00 to $104.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AEP. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 405,114 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in American Electric Power by 4.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,902,755 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,760,223,000 after purchasing an additional 1,114,954 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,524,692 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,280,655,000 after purchasing an additional 352,588 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 8,586,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $739,303,000 after purchasing an additional 776,965 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 18.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,866,952 shares of the company’s stock worth $704,549,000 after buying an additional 1,087,163 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.24% of the company’s stock.

American Electric Power Trading Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ AEP opened at $97.59 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $51.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.56, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.55. American Electric Power has a 52 week low of $75.22 and a 52 week high of $105.18. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $99.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $95.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.57.

American Electric Power Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be paid a $0.93 dividend. This is a boost from American Electric Power’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.81%. American Electric Power’s payout ratio is 74.55%.

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.