Business Context and Reporting Period
This Form 8-K filing by American Electric Power Company, Inc. is dated May 20, 2009. The report serves as a Regulation FD disclosure regarding investor meetings scheduled for May 20, 2009, and May 27, 2009.
Key Financial Metrics
The filing does not provide specific historical financial data such as revenue, profit, cash flow, margins, debt, or liquidity for the current or prior periods. The only financial metric disclosed is the company's forward-looking earnings guidance.
Material Changes and Guidance
During the upcoming investor meetings, management will reaffirm its prior guidance for the 2009 fiscal year:
- Ongoing Earnings Guidance: $2.75 to $3.05 per share.
- Reference: This guidance was most recently stated in a Form 8-K filed on April 24, 2009.
Management defines "ongoing earnings" as GAAP earnings adjusted for certain items, noting that this metric provides a more meaningful representation of performance and is used internally for budgeting and board reporting.
Risks and Contingencies
The filing includes extensive forward-looking statements and disclaims any obligation to update them. Material factors that could cause actual results to differ from projections include:
- Operational Factors: Electric load growth, weather conditions, fuel availability and costs, and generating plant performance.
- Regulatory and Legal: Ability to recover costs through rate cases, new environmental legislation (emissions of sulfur, nitrogen, mercury, carbon), and pending litigation (including Clean Air Act actions and Enron Corp. bankruptcy disputes).
- Financial Markets: Availability of capital, ability to refinance debt, creditworthiness of fuel suppliers, and actions by rating agencies.
- Market Volatility: Fluctuations in electricity, natural gas, and commodity prices.
- Unforeseen Events: Wars, terrorism, embargoes, and catastrophic events.
Investor Verification Checklist
- Verify the specific non-GAAP adjustments used to calculate "ongoing earnings" as referenced in the April 24, 2009 press release.
- Monitor upcoming rate case decisions and regulatory rulings affecting cost recovery.
- Assess the status of pending litigation, particularly regarding the Clean Air Act and Enron Corp. disputes.
- Review the company's ability to refinance existing debt given current financial market conditions.
- Track fuel cost trends and their impact on the ability to recover costs through regulated rates.