American Electric Power Co Inc (AEP) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Utilities · as of Sep 24, 2026
American Electric Power Co Inc (AEP)
A forensic read on American Electric Power Co Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
20.8
P / E (ttm)
11.5%
ROE
$64.5B
Market cap
4.48%
Dividend yield
10.9%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
American Electric Power Co Inc earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.2, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+1.6%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +3% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+1.6%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~1.6% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~3%.
+13.3%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +13.3% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by receivables up +9% against revenue +11%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 5% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 13.3%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.
4.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.6% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 0.9-point range. The capital base behind it grew +19% across FY2023–FY2025, from $87.3B to $104.1B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 4% the older base was already earning.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$21.88B
Revenue Growth YoY+10.9%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+7.3%
Net Margin16.4%
Free Cash Flow$3.49B
Return on Equity11.5%
Debt / Equity1.52x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from American Electric Power Co Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?