2,370 Shares in American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) Purchased by Gateway Wealth Partners LLC

Gateway Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 2,370 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of American Electric Power by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,630,436 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,273,181,000 after buying an additional 405,114 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of American Electric Power by 9.9% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 8,586,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $739,303,000 after buying an additional 776,965 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of American Electric Power by 1.1% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,378,543 shares of the company’s stock valued at $296,433,000 after buying an additional 35,769 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lifted its position in shares of American Electric Power by 542.4% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,282,571 shares of the company’s stock valued at $193,541,000 after buying an additional 1,927,234 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of American Electric Power during the fourth quarter valued at about $175,667,000. 75.24% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AEP has been the subject of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of American Electric Power from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $91.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded shares of American Electric Power from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $73.00 to $86.00 in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of American Electric Power from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $96.43.

American Electric Power Price Performance

NASDAQ:AEP opened at $102.60 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The firm has a market cap of $54.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $99.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $91.83. American Electric Power Company, Inc. has a 1-year low of $69.38 and a 1-year high of $105.18.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $4.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.74 billion. American Electric Power had a net margin of 13.52% and a return on equity of 11.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.13 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that American Electric Power Company, Inc. will post 5.6 EPS for the current year.

American Electric Power Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a dividend of $0.88 per share. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. American Electric Power’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.31%.

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.