National Pension Service Acquires 44,884 Shares of American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP)

National Pension Service lifted its stake in American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) by 3.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,305,479 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 44,884 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.25% of American Electric Power worth $106,031,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in American Electric Power by 14.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 28,591,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,150,657,000 after acquiring an additional 3,589,451 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of American Electric Power by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,798,204 shares of the company’s stock worth $737,021,000 after purchasing an additional 1,181,706 shares in the last quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd lifted its holdings in American Electric Power by 70.7% during the 3rd quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,953,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $145,835,000 after purchasing an additional 809,067 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its stake in American Electric Power by 18.1% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 4,311,429 shares of the company’s stock worth $324,304,000 after buying an additional 660,599 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 4.1% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 14,892,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,120,240,000 after buying an additional 587,145 shares in the last quarter. 75.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on AEP. Scotiabank increased their price target on American Electric Power from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Mizuho downgraded shares of American Electric Power from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $83.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Guggenheim cut shares of American Electric Power from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $81.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, UBS Group cut American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $86.00 to $83.00 in a report on Monday, March 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $88.14.

American Electric Power Stock Up 0.8 %

AEP stock traded up $0.76 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $90.46. 1,019,112 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,700,422. The firm has a market cap of $47.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.50. American Electric Power Company, Inc. has a 1-year low of $69.38 and a 1-year high of $92.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.54. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $81.22.

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

American Electric Power Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 10th will be given a dividend of $0.88 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.89%. American Electric Power’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.31%.

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.