As he is often wont to do, American Electric Power CEO Nick Akins opened his company’s third-quarter earnings call with financial analysts Thursday by quoting a rocker. He used Lenny Kravitz’ hit “Fly Away” to symbolize the shared pain “many of us have … during 2020 with these multiple challenges”:
“‘I wanna fly away.’
“Probably figuratively and literally,” Akins mused. “But there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
AEP’s year-to-date residential sales are up 2.6% when compared with last year, largely because of people spending more time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Akins said. Commercial and industrial sales are still down year-to-date, 4.9% and 7%, respectively, but showing signs of life.
“Both our commercial and industrial classes are showing steady improvement from the low we experienced in the second quarter as some businesses reopened over the summer,” he said. “We expect this trend will continue into 2021, barring additional unanticipated negative economic impacts from the pandemic.”
AEP reaffirmed its 2020 operating earnings guidance range of $4.25 to $4.45/share.
Akins headed off questions about the ongoing federal investigation into an alleged bribery scheme tied to the passage of Ohio House Bill 6 during his prepared remarks. (See FirstEnergy, AEP CEOs Deny Wrongdoing.)
“I’ll just say flatly that we have nothing new to report from AEP’s perspective,” he said. “Any potential legislative change is not imminent, particularly given a noisy election cycle. So, perhaps we’ll hear more after the election.
“As we’ve said earlier, any change to the existing legislation is likely to be financially insignificant for AEP, and we will still be pushing for forward-looking legislation regarding clean energy options, energy efficiency and other technology enhancements,” Akins said. “Regarding the legal issues surrounding HB6, also nothing new to report, and my previous comments stand on this subject.”
AEP’s share price, which closed Wednesday at $90.40, closed at $92.20 on Thursday, the highest it been since early March.
