American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.93

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 22nd, RTT News reports. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. This is an increase 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 increased its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. American Electric Power has a payout ratio of 59.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 opened at $100.83 on Thursday. American Electric Power has a 1 year low of $73.75 and a 1 year high of $105.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.71, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.54. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $100.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $93.63.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $4.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.74 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.13 EPS. American Electric Power’s revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that American Electric Power will post 5.6 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on American Electric Power in a research report on Friday, September 20th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $107.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $102.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Scotiabank raised 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 note on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of American Electric Power from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $108.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price 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.