HTLF Bank Invests $249,000 in American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP)

HTLF Bank purchased a new position in shares of American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEP) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 3,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $249,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AEP. Gray Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Gray Wealth Management Inc. now owns 3,628 shares of the company’s stock valued at $295,000 after acquiring an additional 274 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. raised its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 67,786 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,506,000 after acquiring an additional 3,302 shares in the last quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 4,120 shares of the company’s stock valued at $335,000 after acquiring an additional 324 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 84,447 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,859,000 after acquiring an additional 3,113 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maple Brown Abbott Ltd raised its stake in shares of American Electric Power by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Maple Brown Abbott Ltd now owns 1,688,890 shares of the company’s stock valued at $137,155,000 after acquiring an additional 78,510 shares in the last quarter. 75.24% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AEP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH downgraded American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $75.50 to $73.00 in a research note on Friday, March 8th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on American Electric Power from $87.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. UBS Group lowered American Electric Power from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $86.00 to $83.00 in a report on Monday, March 11th. StockNews.com lowered American Electric Power from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on American Electric Power from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, American Electric Power currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.08.

American Electric Power Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of AEP opened at $84.20 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.49. American Electric Power Company, Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.38 and a 12-month high of $94.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.34 billion, a PE ratio of 19.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.51. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $82.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $80.01.

American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The company reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.26 by ($0.03). American Electric Power had a net margin of 11.64% and a return on equity of 11.04%. The company had revenue of $4.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.05 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that American Electric Power Company, Inc. will post 5.54 earnings per share for the current year.

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.