The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in American Electric Power Company Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Utilities company by 1.28% to 45.82 million shares with purchase of 0.58 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 8.91% valued currently at $4.23 billion. In addition, Wellington Management Co. LLP raised its holdings by 1.18 million to 24.17 million shares. And Columbia Management Investment Ad has lifted its position by 16.77% or 1.66 million shares – to 11.56 million shares.
With over 2.12 million American Electric Power Company Inc. (AEP) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $86.56 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $183.26 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -3.54% and its price on 05/19/23 lost nearly -0.09%. Currently, there are 514.18M common shares owned by the public and among those 513.70M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 19 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for AEP have a consensus price objective of $102.55. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $113.00 and a low of $87.50. The average price target is 16.06% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 1.07% over that period. But an upside of 23.4% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $102.50.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 82 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 23 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 227,974 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 59 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 182,872 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in American Electric Power Company Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and SPDR Series – Utilities Select Se. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 15.91 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $1.47 billion. The company bought an additional 99122.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.09% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 57660.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 12.0 million shares valued at over $1.11 billion and representing 2.33% of the shares outstanding. SPDR Series – Utilities Select Se bought 14152.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 8.35 million shares at a value of $772.01 million. SPDR Series – Utilities Select Se now owns shares totaling to 1.62% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of American Electric Power Company Inc. (NASDAQ: AEP) opened at $86.74, up $0.1 from a prior closing price of $86.64. However, the script later moved the day high at 87.46, down -0.09%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -5.56% and -6.33% over the past three months. AEP shares are trading -8.84% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -13.34% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $80.30 and touched a high of $105.60 over the same period. AEP has an average intraday trading volume of 2.78 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -5.27%, -5.16%, and -7.31% respectively.
Institutional ownership of American Electric Power Company Inc. (NASDAQ: AEP) shares accounts for 75.70% of the company’s 514.18M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 31.33%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 44.09% and 0.21% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $44.60B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.46. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 22.41, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $3.86. The company has a PEG of 4.19 and a Quick Ratio of 0.50 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 1.80. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.99% over the week and 1.71% over the month.
Analysts forecast that American Electric Power Company Inc. (AEP) will achieve an EPS of $1.24 for the current quarter, $1.73 for the next quarter and $5.62 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.16 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.33. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.2 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -9.40%, and 6.48% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 5.35% over the next five years, compared to 3.30% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 19 brokerage firm advisors rate American Electric Power Company Inc. (AEP) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.50. Specifically, 9 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 9 of the 19 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”
