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American Electric Power to Post Q3 Earnings: What's in Store?

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Key Takeaways

  • Warmer weather likely lifted electricity demand across AEP's service territories.
  • Industrial load growth, data centers and retail sales likely supported AEP's revenues.
  • Higher O&M, interest and depreciation expenses may pressure AEP's Q3 earnings.

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (AEP - Free Report) is slated to release third-quarter 2025 results on Oct. 29, before market open.

The company delivered an earnings surprise of 11.72% in the last quarter. Moreover, American Electric Power has a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 6.61%.

Let’s discuss the factors that are likely to be reflected in the upcoming quarterly results.

Factors to Note Ahead of AEP’s Q3 Results

Most of AEP’s service territories observed warmer-than-normal weather conditions in the third quarter. Such a weather pattern is expected to have boosted electricity demand from AEP’s customers for cooling purposes this summer. This is likely to have contributed to American Electric Power's top line in the third quarter.

Factors like favorable rate revisions in prior quarters, industrial load growth, data center demand and higher normalized retail sales, aided by economic development in the states where AEP operates, are also likely to have boosted the top-line performance in the soon-to-be-reported quarter.

Higher operating & maintenance (O&M), interest expenses and depreciation expenses are likely to have weighed on its third-quarter earnings. Nevertheless, positive revenue expectations are expected to have aided the bottom-line performance.

AEP’s Q3 Expectations

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for AEP’s sales is pegged at $5.64 billion, which indicates year-over-year growth of 4.5%.

The consensus estimate for earnings is pegged at $1.80 per share, which indicates a year-over-year decline of 2.7%.

The consensus estimate for total energy sales for vertically integrated utilities is pinned at 28.87 billion kWh, which indicates year-over-year growth of 0.9%.

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 -2.35%. You can uncover the best stocks before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

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

Other Stocks to Consider

Here, 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:

Xcel Energy, Inc. (XEL - Free Report) is slated to report its third-quarter 2025 results on Oct. 30, before market open. It has an Earnings ESP of +0.38% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present.

XEL’s long-term (three to five years) earnings growth rate is 7.4%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pinned at $1.31 per share, which suggests a year-over-year rise of 4.8%.

Eversource Energy (ES - Free Report) is slated to report its third-quarter 2025 results on Nov. 4, after market close. It has an Earnings ESP of +1.59% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present.

ES’ long-term earnings growth rate is 5.9%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $1.12 per share.

Duke Energy (DUK - Free Report) is scheduled to report its third-quarter 2025 results on Nov. 7, before market open. It has an Earnings ESP of +1.59% and a Zacks Rank of 2 at present.

DUK’s long-term earnings growth rate is 6.40%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings stands at $1.73 per share, which implies a year-over-year increase of 6.8%.

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