Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC Sells 626 Shares of American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP)

Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) by 12.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,610 shares of the company’s stock after selling 626 shares during the quarter. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC’s holdings in American Electric Power were worth $374,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its stake in American Electric Power by 1.1% in the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 128,825 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,690,000 after purchasing an additional 1,406 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its holdings in shares of American Electric Power by 13.7% in the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 23,718 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,784,000 after purchasing an additional 2,856 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in American Electric Power by 127.9% in the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 11,992 shares of the company’s stock worth $902,000 after buying an additional 6,731 shares during the period. Independent Advisor Alliance boosted its position in American Electric Power by 226.7% in the 3rd quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 22,322 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,679,000 after buying an additional 15,489 shares during the period. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its stake in American Electric Power by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 15,352 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,155,000 after acquiring an additional 857 shares in the last quarter. 75.24% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AEP. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of American Electric Power from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group lowered American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $86.00 to $83.00 in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Barclays increased their price target on American Electric Power from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded American Electric Power from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH lowered shares of American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $75.50 to $73.00 in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $88.14.

American Electric Power Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ AEP opened at $88.60 on Friday. American Electric Power Company, Inc. has a 52 week low of $69.38 and a 52 week high of $92.88. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $84.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $80.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The firm has a market cap of $46.70 billion, a PE ratio of 16.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.50.

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

American Electric Power Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be issued a $0.88 dividend. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.97%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. American Electric Power’s dividend payout ratio 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.