Short Interest in American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) Declines By 18.0%

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) saw a large decrease in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,810,000 shares, a decrease of 18.0% from the January 15th total of 9,530,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,970,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 57,574 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,310,000 after acquiring an additional 3,288 shares in the last quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 22.4% in the fourth quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 23,916 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,206,000 after buying an additional 4,370 shares in the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust lifted its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 436.9% in the fourth quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 7,092 shares of the company’s stock worth $654,000 after buying an additional 5,771 shares in the last quarter. J2 Capital Management Inc bought a new position in shares of American Electric Power in the fourth quarter worth approximately $419,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 3.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 640,029 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,667,000 after buying an additional 19,081 shares in the last quarter. 75.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AEP shares. Scotiabank cut shares of American Electric Power from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $105.00 to $102.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $100.00 to $99.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Bank of America raised shares of American Electric Power from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $98.00 to $104.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of American Electric Power from $97.00 to $96.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of American Electric Power from $91.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, American Electric Power presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $98.00.

American Electric Power Trading Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ:AEP opened at $101.83 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $95.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $97.92. American Electric Power has a 12 month low of $79.01 and a 12 month high of $105.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $54.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.58.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.24. American Electric Power had a net margin of 13.48% and a return on equity of 11.41%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.23 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that American Electric Power will post 5.58 EPS for the current year.

American Electric Power Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 10th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a $0.93 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.65%. 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.