Abacus Planning Group Inc. Acquires 122 Shares of American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP)

Abacus Planning Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) by 3.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,634 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 122 shares during the quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc.’s holdings in American Electric Power were worth $373,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AEP. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of American Electric Power by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,630,436 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,273,181,000 after buying an additional 405,114 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in American Electric Power by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 8,586,577 shares of the company’s stock worth $739,303,000 after acquiring an additional 776,965 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in American Electric Power by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,378,543 shares of the company’s stock worth $296,433,000 after purchasing an additional 35,769 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its holdings in American Electric Power by 542.4% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,282,571 shares of the company’s stock valued at $193,541,000 after purchasing an additional 1,927,234 shares during the period. Finally, Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of American Electric Power during the 4th quarter valued at $175,667,000. 75.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

American Electric Power Stock Performance

Shares of AEP stock opened at $101.81 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.65. American Electric Power Company, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $69.38 and a fifty-two week high of $105.18. The company has a market capitalization of $53.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.89, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.54. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $100.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $92.04.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.02. American Electric Power had a net margin of 13.52% and a return on equity of 11.31%. The business had revenue of $4.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.74 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that American Electric Power Company, Inc. will post 5.6 earnings per share for the current year.

American Electric Power Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a $0.88 dividend. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. American Electric Power’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.31%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AEP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on American Electric Power from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on American Electric Power from $102.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of American Electric Power from $101.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of American Electric Power from $99.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised shares of American Electric Power from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $73.00 to $86.00 in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $96.43.

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.