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American Electric Power to Post Q4 Earnings: What's in Store?

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American Electric Power Company, Inc (AEP - Free Report) is slated to release fourth-quarter 2024 results on Feb. 13, before the market opens.

Find the latest earnings estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.

In the last reported quarter, the company delivered an earnings surprise of 3.93%. Moreover, American Electric has a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 0.03%.

Factors to Note Ahead of AEP’s Q4 Earnings
 

Most of AEP’s service territories observed warmer-than-normal weather conditions in the fourth quarter. This is likely to have hampered electricity demand from its customers for heating purposes this winter, which is expected to have hurt its quarterly revenues.

Adverse weather patterns, including flash flooding and a few tornadoes, affected some parts of AEP’s service territories during the fourth quarter. This might have disrupted the company’s services in those areas, which is likely to have resulted in outages for its customers. AEP’s overall revenues might have been impacted by these outages.

On a bright note, factors like favorable rate revisions, solid transmission revenues and increased customer volumes must have aided AEP’s top-line performance in the soon-to-be-reported quarter.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for American Electric’s fourth-quarter revenues is pegged at $5.08 billion. This suggests 10.4% growth from the year-ago quarter.

Considering the aforementioned adverse weather pattern, some of AEP’s infrastructure might have been damaged by the tornados and floods, which must have pushed up its operating expenses to repair and restore the damaged infrastructure. Such higher operating and depreciation expenses might have hurt the company’s bottom-line performance.

Nevertheless, benefits from favorable investments in the prior quarters, higher retail margins, lower interest expenses and solid revenue expectations are likely to have boosted American Electric’s overall earnings.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AEP’s fourth-quarter earnings is pegged at $1.24 per share. This indicates an increase of 0.8% from the prior-year reported figure.

What the Zacks Model Unveils for AEP
 

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for American Electric this time. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat, which is not the case here, as you will see below.

Earnings ESP: AEP has an Earnings ESP of -0.16%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Currently, American Electric carries a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Stocks to Consider
 

Below we have mentioned a few players from the same industry that also have the right combination of elements to beat on earnings in the upcoming releases.

PG&E Corporation (PCG - Free Report) is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter results on Feb. 13, before the market opens. It has an Earnings ESP of +1.64% and a Zacks Rank of 2 at present.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PCG’s fourth-quarter sales is pegged at $7.25 billion, which indicates a 2.9% improvement from the year-ago quarter’s figure. The consensus estimate for fourth-quarter earnings stands at 31 cents per share.

OGE Energy (OGE - Free Report) is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on Feb. 19, before market open. It has an Earnings ESP of +2.41% and a Zacks Rank of 2 at present.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for sales is pegged at $672.5 million, which indicates an 18.7% improvement from the year-ago quarter’s figure. The consensus estimate for earnings stands at 48 cents per share, which indicates year-over-year growth of 100%.

CenterPoint Energy (CNP - Free Report) is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on Feb. 20, before market open. It has an Earnings ESP of +0.63% and a Zacks Rank of 2 at present.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for sales is pegged at $2.28 billion, which indicates a 4.6% improvement from the year-ago quarter’s figure. The consensus estimate for earnings stands at 40 cents per share, which calls for year-over-year growth of 25%.

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