NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of American Electric Power are lower by 0.25% to $64.41 in late afternoon trading Tuesday, ahead of of the utility company's fiscal fourth quarter 2014 earnings release tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET. Analysts expect American Electric Power to post earnings of 51 cents per share, down from the 60 cents it reported in the same quarter a year ago. Analysts' forecasts call for revenue of $4.22 billion for the period, 11.2% higher compared to the $3.8 billion in sales the company posted in the fourth quarter of 2013. Exclusive Report: Jim Cramer's Best Stocks for 2015 STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more. Last Wednesday, American Electric Power declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of 53 cents a share on its common stock. The dividend is payable on March 10 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 10, and is the company's 419th consecutive quarterly common stock cash dividend. Columbus, OH-based American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the U.S., delivering electricity to 5.3 million customers throughout 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation's largest generators of electricity, and owns almost 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER CO as a Buy with a ratings score of A+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER CO (AEP) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, growth in earnings per share, increase in net income, revenue growth and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: Investors have apparently begun to recognize positive factors similar to those we have mentioned in this report, including earnings growth. This has helped drive up the company's shares by a sharp 34.84% over the past year, a rise that has exceeded that of the S&P 500 Index. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, AEP should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year. AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER CO has improved earnings per share by 13.5% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past year. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER CO increased its bottom line by earning $3.04 versus $2.60 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($3.46 versus $3.04). The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Electric Utilities industry average. The net income increased by 13.9% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $433.00 million to $493.00 million. Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 5.8%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 3.0%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share. The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Electric Utilities industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER CO has outperformed in comparison with the industry average, but has underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500. You can view the full analysis from the report here: AEP Ratings Report STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.
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