Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP Sells 4,420 Shares of American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP)

Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP lessened its stake in shares of American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) by 8.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,530 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,420 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP’s holdings in American Electric Power were worth $3,698,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AEP. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in American Electric Power by 14.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 28,591,562 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,150,657,000 after acquiring an additional 3,589,451 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in American Electric Power by 13.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,798,204 shares of the company’s stock worth $737,021,000 after buying an additional 1,181,706 shares in the last quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd boosted its position in American Electric Power by 70.7% during the third quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,953,072 shares of the company’s stock worth $145,835,000 after purchasing an additional 809,067 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in American Electric Power by 18.1% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 4,311,429 shares of the company’s stock worth $324,304,000 after acquiring an additional 660,599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of American Electric Power by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 14,892,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,120,240,000 after purchasing an additional 587,145 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.24% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AEP. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on American Electric Power from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Mizuho cut American Electric Power from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $83.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of American Electric Power from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of American Electric Power from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, StockNews.com raised American Electric Power from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $88.14.

American Electric Power Stock Up 0.7 %

AEP traded up $0.59 during trading on Thursday, hitting $90.29. The company had a trading volume of 390,678 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,693,180. The company has a market cap of $47.59 billion, a PE ratio of 16.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.37. American Electric Power Company, Inc. has a 1-year low of $69.38 and a 1-year high of $92.10. The business has a 50-day moving average of $84.52 and a 200-day moving average of $81.22.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.02. American Electric Power had a net margin of 14.60% and a return on equity of 11.23%. The business had revenue of $5 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.11 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that American Electric Power Company, Inc. will post 5.58 earnings per share for the current year.

American Electric Power Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.88 per share. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.90%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. American Electric Power’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.31%.

American Electric Power Profile

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.