American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) Raised to Hold at StockNews.com

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

AEP has been the topic of several other reports. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on American Electric Power from $101.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 23rd. Mizuho cut their target price on American Electric Power from $94.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 6th. Guggenheim cut their target price on American Electric Power from $105.00 to $96.00 in a research note on Friday, July 7th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on American Electric Power from $103.00 to $89.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 6th. Finally, Barclays began coverage on American Electric Power in a research report on Wednesday, August 23rd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $88.00 price objective on the stock. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, American Electric Power currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $94.97.

American Electric Power Price Performance

American Electric Power stock opened at $80.04 on Friday. American Electric Power has a one year low of $75.47 and a one year high of $101.15. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $81.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $85.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.74, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.46.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by ($0.01). American Electric Power had a return on equity of 10.44% and a net margin of 10.20%. The business had revenue of $4.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.20 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that American Electric Power will post 5.26 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of AEP. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 50.9% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 682 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of American Electric Power in the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,840,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. purchased a new position in shares of American Electric Power in the 2nd quarter valued at about $484,000. Portside Wealth Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of American Electric Power in the 2nd quarter valued at about $551,000. Finally, Alberta Investment Management Corp increased its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 28.0% in the 2nd quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 231,471 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,490,000 after purchasing an additional 50,695 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.68% 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.