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

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Stockholders 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 raised its dividend by an average of 5.9% annually 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% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AEP traded up $0.66 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $85.56. 3,468,019 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,772,135. American Electric Power has a 12-month low of $69.38 and a 12-month high of $94.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $83.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $80.15. The company has a market cap of $45.06 billion, a PE ratio of 19.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.51.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The company reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by ($0.03). American Electric Power had a return on equity of 11.04% and a net margin of 11.64%. The business had revenue of $4.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.12 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.05 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that American Electric Power will post 5.54 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com downgraded American Electric Power from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Barclays boosted their price objective on American Electric Power from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Mizuho downgraded American Electric Power from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $83.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH cut American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $75.50 to $73.00 in a report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, UBS Group cut American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $86.00 to $83.00 in a report on Monday, March 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, American Electric Power presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $86.08.

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.