American Electric Power (AEP) Competitors

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) and AES (NYSE:AES) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, media sentiment, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Is AEP or AES more profitable?

American Electric Power has a net margin of 17.68% compared to AES's net margin of 8.42%. AES's return on equity of 19.02% beat American Electric Power's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Electric Power	17.68%	11.55%	3.11%
AES	8.42%	19.02%	3.01%

Is AEP or AES a better dividend stock?

American Electric Power pays an annual dividend of $3.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. AES pays an annual dividend of $0.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. American Electric Power pays out 54.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. AES pays out 49.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. American Electric Power has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years and AES has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years. AES is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Do analysts prefer AEP or AES?

American Electric Power currently has a consensus price target of $111.93, indicating a potential upside of 2.93%. AES has a consensus price target of $24.67, indicating a potential upside of 91.81%. Given AES's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe AES is more favorable than American Electric Power.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Electric Power	1 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.29
AES	2 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Does the media favor AEP or AES?

In the previous week, AES had 1 more articles in the media than American Electric Power. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for AES and 27 mentions for American Electric Power. American Electric Power's average media sentiment score of 1.47 beat AES's score of 0.81 indicating that American Electric Power is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
American Electric Power	23 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
AES	12 Very Positive mention(s)	5 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do institutionals and insiders believe in AEP or AES?

75.2% of American Electric Power shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.1% of AES shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of American Electric Power shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of AES shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, AEP or AES?

American Electric Power has a beta of 0.46, suggesting that its stock price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AES has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, AEP or AES?

American Electric Power has higher revenue and earnings than AES. AES is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Electric Power, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Electric Power	$19.72B	2.95	$2.97B	$6.84	15.90
AES	$12.28B	0.75	$1.68B	$1.42	9.06

Summary

AES beats American Electric Power on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.