SouthState Corp Increases Stock Holdings in American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP)

SouthState Corp boosted its stake in American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,611 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 102 shares during the quarter. SouthState Corp’s holdings in American Electric Power were worth $610,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AEP. DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 57,574 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,310,000 after purchasing an additional 3,288 shares during the period. Secure Asset Management LLC boosted its position in American Electric Power by 22.4% in the 4th quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 23,916 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,206,000 after buying an additional 4,370 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust grew its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 436.9% during the fourth quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 7,092 shares of the company’s stock valued at $654,000 after acquiring an additional 5,771 shares in the last quarter. J2 Capital Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of American Electric Power during the fourth quarter worth about $419,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of American Electric Power by 3.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 640,029 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,667,000 after acquiring an additional 19,081 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.24% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on AEP shares. Scotiabank lowered American Electric Power from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $105.00 to $102.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on American Electric Power from $108.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on American Electric Power from $109.00 to $104.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $102.00 target price (down from $109.00) on shares of American Electric Power in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on American Electric Power from $100.00 to $99.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $98.46.

American Electric Power Price Performance

Shares of AEP opened at $105.86 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 0.44 and a quick ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $56.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.90, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.50. American Electric Power Company, Inc. has a 12 month low of $79.16 and a 12 month high of $109.52. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $100.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $98.91.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported $1.24 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.24. American Electric Power had a net margin of 15.08% and a return on equity of 11.27%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that American Electric Power Company, Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

American Electric Power Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $0.93 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.51%. American Electric Power’s dividend payout ratio is presently 66.43%.

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.