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

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid 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 3.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th.

American Electric Power has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.9% per year 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 59.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Price Performance

Shares of AEP stock opened at $89.87 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. American Electric Power has a twelve month low of $69.38 and a twelve month high of $92.88. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $84.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.04.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $5 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.02 billion. American Electric Power had a net margin of 14.60% and a return on equity of 11.23%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.11 EPS. On average, analysts predict that American Electric Power will post 5.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on American Electric Power from $84.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. StockNews.com upgraded American Electric Power from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH downgraded American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $75.50 to $73.00 in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Mizuho lowered American Electric Power from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $83.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $88.14.

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.