American Electric Power Company Inc vs Xcel Energy Inc

American Electric Power Company Inc (AEP) is undervalued and Xcel Energy Inc (XEL) is slightly overvalued.

Against our estimates of intrinsic value, AEP trades at the wider discount: a margin of safety of +27%, against -8% for XEL.

Values as of the 22 Sept 2026 close.

American Electric Power Company Inc (AEP)

Discounting its cash flows at 7.5% (average of 3 methods) values the shares at $163.79; the price of $120.27 is 27% below that value, and 82% of that value comes from beyond year five.

Leak Score 61/100 on 10 of 12 signals

Xcel Energy Inc (XEL)

Discounting its cash flows at 7.7% (average of 2 methods) values the shares at $66.77; the price of $72.06 is 8% above that value.

Leak Score 37/100 on 10 of 12 signals

MetricAEPXEL
VerdictUndervaluedSlightly overvalued
Price$120.27$72.06
Intrinsic value$163.79$66.77
Margin of safety+27%-8%
Leak Score61/100 (10/12)37/100 (10/12)
Market cap$65.5B$45.0B
Revenue growth, 5 years7.9%4.9%
Operating margin23.3%21.2%
Net margin13.8%15.3%
Return on equity10.1%9.9%
Debt to equity1.671.73
P/E20.8x19.7x
Forward P/E17.5x15.8x
P/B2.0x1.9x
Dividend yield3.2%3.3%

All stocks in Utilities - Regulated Electric