American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) Price Target Increased to $100.00 by Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) had its target price hoisted by analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $90.00 to $100.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 12.87% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on AEP. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on American Electric Power from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group cut American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $86.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of American Electric Power from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH downgraded shares of American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $75.50 to $73.00 in a report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Mizuho cut shares of American Electric Power from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $83.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Two investment 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $88.14.

American Electric Power Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AEP opened at $88.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.36. American Electric Power has a 1 year low of $69.38 and a 1 year high of $92.88. The company has a market cap of $46.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.44, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.50. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $84.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $80.86.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $1.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.02. American Electric Power had a net margin of 14.60% and a return on equity of 11.23%. The business had revenue of $5 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.11 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that American Electric Power will post 5.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Electric Power

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AEP. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in American Electric Power by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 28,591,562 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,150,657,000 after purchasing an additional 3,589,451 shares during the period. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in American Electric Power in the 4th quarter worth $175,667,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 381.9% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,995,884 shares of the company’s stock valued at $171,127,000 after purchasing an additional 1,581,734 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of American Electric Power by 13.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,798,204 shares of the company’s stock valued at $737,021,000 after purchasing an additional 1,181,706 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 67.7% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,586,250 shares of the company’s stock worth $210,055,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043,885 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.