Insider Selling: The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) CEO Sells 32,190 Shares of Stock

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total transaction of $2,997,532.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,946,985.28. The trade was a 23.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Southern Stock Performance

Southern stock opened at $89.67 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $98.35 billion, a PE ratio of 22.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $85.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $87.10. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $67.53 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.01). Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The firm had revenue of $6.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Southern’s payout ratio is 71.82%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southern

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of SO. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its holdings in Southern by 17,272.6% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 14,647,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,320,866,000 after buying an additional 14,562,689 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Southern during the 4th quarter valued at $848,019,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Southern in the 4th quarter valued at $315,290,000. Marshall Wace LLP raised its position in shares of Southern by 325.7% in the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 4,322,931 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $355,864,000 after acquiring an additional 3,307,527 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 72.4% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,077,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $277,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,293,072 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on SO. Guggenheim lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank raised their price target on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.54.

Southern Company Profile

The Southern Company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. The company also develops, constructs, acquires, owns, and manages power generation assets, including renewable energy projects and sells electricity in the wholesale market; and distributes natural gas in Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee, as well as provides gas marketing services, gas distribution operations, and gas pipeline investments operations.