Mad Money

Cramer’s nice, consistent high-yielder

With volatility returning to the market, you might want to think about parking some money in a more consistent stock with a higher yield.

And Cramer says few high yielding stocks are more consistent than American Electric Power.

" gives you a 4.2% yield at these levels," Cramer noted. And "AEP gets 95% of its earnings from regulated utility operations, which means this is about as consistent and dependable as it gets."

However, yield isn't the only reason this stock has caught Cramer's eye



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Since October shares have marched consistently higher. That may be a sign that pros think shares are undervalued.

Specifically, investors may be expecting recent developments to goose profits at AEP, the largest power transmission network in the country. "The company recently received permission to raise rates in Michigan, Indiana, Virginia, and Ohio," Cramer explained. "Yet it's trading at a meaningful discount to the other regulated utility stocks."

"I think it should be trading at least in-line," Cramer said.

In fact the Mad Money host can even see AEP commanding a premium "because Ohio, one of AEP's core markets, is going to deregulate the power business in the not too distant future."

Cramer believes recent earnings are a referendum on the abilities of this company to generate profits.

In late January, AEP reported net earnings of $346 million or $0.71 per share for the fourth quarter, sharply higher than $21 million or $0.05 per share in the prior-year quarter. Excluding special items, operating earnings for the quarter were $296 million or $0.60 per share, compared to $242 million or $0.50 per share in the year-ago quarter.

On average, 15 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.57 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues for the quarter grew to $3.8 billion from $3.6 billion in the same quarter last year, and topped seven Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate of $3.55 billion.

Operating earnings for utility operations was $244 million, compared to $283 million, and operating earnings for transmission operations was $27 million, compared to $13 million in the year-ago quarter

As far as Cramer is concerned those numbers speak volumes.

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At a time when market uncertainty may trigger a rotation into consistent, high yielding stocks, Cramer thinks American Electric Power could attract serious investor attention.

Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC

Questions for Cramer? madmoney@cnbc.com

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