-- CFRA, an independent research provider, has providedwith the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:
We lift our 12-month target by $2 to $145, valuing shares of AEP at a forward P/E of 22.6x our next-12-month EPS view, a premium to its three-year forward average of 16.8x. We lift our 2026 EPS view by $0.04 to $6.37 and 2027 by $0.03 to $6.88. AEP reported 63 GW of incremental contracted load by 2030 (up from 56 GW last quarter), with 41 GW in Texas alone backed by signed letters of agreement with hyperscalers. An additional 190 GW in the active development queue positions AEP among the fastest-growing regulated utilities. However, we believe growth is largely priced in and we see little upside as shares are up ~28% over the past year. Our downgrade to Hold reflects our view of lagging earnings growth compared to peers trading at similar valuation premiums over historical levels. We forecast an 8.2% EPS CAGR from 2025-2028 vs. the peer average of 8.8%. AEP currently trades ~26% above its three-year average P/E, with peers trading at similar premiums (+20%) expecting an average EPS CAGR of 11.7%.