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

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.11%.

American Electric Power has raised its dividend 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 payout ratio of 59.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Up 0.8 %

American Electric Power stock traded up $0.66 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $85.56. The stock had a trading volume of 3,468,019 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,772,135. American Electric Power has a 52-week low of $69.38 and a 52-week high of $94.73. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $83.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $80.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49. The stock has a market cap of $45.06 billion, a PE ratio of 19.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.51.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Mizuho cut shares of American Electric Power from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $83.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH lowered shares of American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $75.50 to $73.00 in a report on Friday, March 8th. StockNews.com lowered shares of American Electric Power from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. Cfra reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $92.00 price objective (up from $90.00) on shares of American Electric Power in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $92.00 to $86.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.