American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) Plans $0.88 Quarterly Dividend

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 10th will be given a dividend of 0.88 per share on Monday, June 10th. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th.

American Electric Power has increased its dividend by an average of 5.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. American Electric Power has a dividend payout ratio of 59.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect American Electric Power to earn $5.92 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 59.5%.

American Electric Power Stock Performance

NASDAQ AEP opened at $86.37 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49. American Electric Power has a 52-week low of $69.38 and a 52-week high of $94.73. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $83.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $80.29. The firm has a market cap of $45.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.51.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The company reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by ($0.03). American Electric Power had a return on equity of 11.04% and a net margin of 11.64%. The company had revenue of $4.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.12 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.05 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that American Electric Power will post 5.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on AEP. StockNews.com downgraded shares of American Electric Power from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Mizuho downgraded shares of American Electric Power from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $83.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH downgraded shares of American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $75.50 to $73.00 in a research report on Friday, March 8th. UBS Group downgraded shares of American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $86.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, American Electric Power currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.08.

About American Electric Power

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.