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

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

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 59.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Performance

Shares of AEP stock traded up $0.66 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $85.56. 3,562,335 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,773,350. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $83.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $80.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.51. American Electric Power has a 12-month low of $69.38 and a 12-month high of $94.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.53.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The company reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.26 by ($0.03). The firm 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 business's revenue for the quarter was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.05 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that American Electric Power will post 5.54 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AEP has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on American Electric Power from $87.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Guggenheim downgraded shares of American Electric Power from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $81.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. UBS Group downgraded shares of American Electric Power from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $86.00 to $83.00 in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Mizuho downgraded shares of American Electric Power from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $83.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of American Electric Power from $92.00 to $86.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, American Electric Power has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $86.08.

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.