American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.93 Per Share

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 22nd, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be paid a dividend of 0.93 per share on Tuesday, December 10th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.72%. This is a positive change from American Electric Power’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88.

American Electric Power has raised its dividend by an average of 5.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 14 years. American Electric Power has a payout ratio of 59.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect American Electric Power to earn $5.95 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 59.2%.

American Electric Power Stock Performance

AEP stock traded down $0.27 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $99.89. The company had a trading volume of 1,981,293 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,131,003. The company has a market cap of $52.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.54. American Electric Power has a twelve month low of $72.01 and a twelve month high of $105.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.65. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $100.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $93.52.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on AEP shares. Morgan Stanley raised their target price 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. increased their price target on shares of American Electric Power from $108.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $109.00 to $114.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of American Electric Power from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of American Electric Power from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $98.43.

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.