American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) Rating Increased to Hold at StockNews.com

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Tuesday.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. UBS Group lowered American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $86.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Guggenheim downgraded American Electric Power from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $81.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective 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 lifted their price objective on American Electric Power from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Cfra reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $92.00 price objective (up previously from $90.00) on shares of American Electric Power in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Two investment 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, American Electric Power currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $88.14.

American Electric Power Price Performance

NASDAQ:AEP opened at $90.58 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.50. American Electric Power has a 52-week low of $69.38 and a 52-week high of $92.10. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $84.37 and a 200 day moving average of $81.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.54.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $1.27 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $5 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.11 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that American Electric Power will post 5.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AEP. Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc. grew its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc. now owns 8,087 shares of the company’s stock worth $696,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the period. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 16.9% during the 1st quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 14,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,222,000 after acquiring an additional 2,056 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 18,293 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,575,000 after acquiring an additional 1,148 shares during the period. Heritage Wealth Advisors grew its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 18.3% during the 1st quarter. Heritage Wealth Advisors now owns 1,257 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares during the period. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 21.7% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 582,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,170,000 after acquiring an additional 103,771 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.24% of the company’s stock.

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.