Business Context and Reporting Period
Company: American Electric Power Company, Inc.
Filing Type: Form 8-K (Current Report)
Date of Report: May 25, 2011
Item: 7.01 Regulation FD Disclosure
This filing serves as notice that company representatives will conduct investor meetings from May 25, 2011, through June 2, 2011. The primary purpose is to reaffirm previously issued financial guidance.
Key Financial Metrics
The filing does not provide specific historical revenue, profit, cash flow, margin, debt, or liquidity figures for the current or prior periods. The only quantitative financial metric disclosed is the forward-looking earnings guidance.
- 2011 Fiscal Year Ongoing Earnings Guidance: $3.00 to $3.20 per share.
- Definition of Ongoing Earnings: GAAP earnings adjusted for certain items, used by management as the primary performance measurement.
Material Changes
No material changes to financial results or operations are reported in this document. The filing explicitly states that the company will reaffirm its prior guidance established for the 2011 fiscal year, as most recently stated in a Form 8-K filed on April 21, 2011.
Guidance, Outlook, and Risks
Management Commentary: Management believes ongoing earnings provide a more meaningful representation of performance than GAAP earnings alone. This metric is used for internal budgeting, board reporting, and external communications.
Risks and Contingencies: The filing includes an extensive list of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from projections, including:
- Electric load, customer growth, and weather conditions (including storms).
- Fuel availability, costs, transportation, and supplier creditworthiness.
- Generating capacity availability and plant performance.
- Regulatory recovery of assets, stranded costs, and fuel/energy costs.
- Legislation and regulations regarding emissions (sulfur, nitrogen, mercury, carbon).
- Resolution of pending litigation, including Clean Air Act enforcement and Enron Corp. bankruptcy disputes.
- Ability to constrain operation and maintenance costs and sell assets.
- Economic climate, inflation, and market demand changes.
- Financial market conditions affecting capital availability and debt refinancing.
- Rating agency actions and commodity market volatility.
- Technology changes and unforeseen events (war, terrorism, catastrophic events).
The registrant expressly disclaims any obligation to update forward-looking information.
Investor Verification Checklist
- Verify the specific "certain items" excluded from GAAP earnings to calculate the "ongoing earnings" metric.
- Review the Form 8-K filed on April 21, 2011, for the original context of the $3.00 to $3.20 per share guidance.
- Monitor regulatory decisions regarding rate cases and environmental compliance costs.
- Track the status of pending litigation, specifically Clean Air Act enforcement actions and Enron-related disputes.
- Assess current fuel costs and weather forecasts for the service territory against the guidance assumptions.