Hedge Funds Are Crazy About American Electric Power Company, Inc. (AEP)

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NYSE:AEP) has seen an increase in hedge fund sentiment lately.

In today’s marketplace, there are a multitude of metrics investors can use to monitor their holdings. Some of the most underrated are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top investment managers can outperform the market by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Just as important, positive insider trading activity is a second way to break down the marketplace. Just as you’d expect, there are lots of incentives for an executive to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of empirical studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if investors know what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a peek at the latest action regarding American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NYSE:AEP).

What have hedge funds been doing with American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NYSE:AEP)?

At Q1’s end, a total of 21 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 17% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings considerably.

Of the funds we track, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management had the most valuable position in American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NYSE:AEP), worth close to $142.1 million, comprising 0.6% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management, with a $60 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining peers that are bullish include John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management and Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers were breaking ground themselves. D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, created the biggest position in American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NYSE:AEP). D E Shaw had 6.2 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also initiated a $5 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Charles Clough’s Clough Capital Partners, and D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NYSE:AEP)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last six-month time period, American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NYSE:AEP) has seen 1 unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also examine hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NYSE:AEP). These stocks are Korea Electric Power Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:KEP), FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE), Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED), PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL), and PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG). All of these stocks are in the electric utilities industry and their market caps are similar to AEP’s market cap.

With the results shown by our studies, retail investors must always keep an eye on hedge fund and insider trading activity, and American Electric Power Company, Inc. (NYSE:AEP) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.

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