American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) Short Interest Down 8.9% in September

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEPGet Free Report) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 7,850,000 shares, a drop of 8.9% from the September 15th total of 8,620,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,830,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days.

American Electric Power Price Performance

American Electric Power stock opened at $98.79 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The company has a market capitalization of $52.07 billion, a PE ratio of 18.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.54. American Electric Power has a one year low of $72.01 and a one year high of $105.18. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $100.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $92.97.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEPGet Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.02. American Electric Power had a return on equity of 11.31% and a net margin of 13.52%. The firm had revenue of $4.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.74 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.13 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that American Electric Power will post 5.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

American Electric Power Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.88 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.56%. American Electric Power’s payout ratio is 65.31%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On American Electric Power

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AEP. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in American Electric Power by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,630,436 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,273,181,000 after purchasing an additional 405,114 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 776,965 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of American Electric Power by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,378,543 shares of the company’s stock valued at $296,433,000 after acquiring an additional 35,769 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its position in shares of American Electric Power by 542.4% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,282,571 shares of the company’s stock valued at $193,541,000 after acquiring an additional 1,927,234 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of American Electric Power by 381.9% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,995,884 shares of the company’s stock valued at $171,127,000 after acquiring an additional 1,581,734 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on AEP. Guggenheim raised their target price on American Electric Power from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on American Electric Power from $101.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Bank of America raised their target price on American Electric Power from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on American Electric Power from $99.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on American Electric Power from $91.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $96.79.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on AEP

American Electric Power Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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