37,062 Shares in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Acquired by HighPoint Advisor Group LLC

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 37,062 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,585,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Southern by 3.1% during the third quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,883 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $316,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC increased its position in Southern by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC now owns 19,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,399,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares during the last quarter. Insight Inv LLC increased its position in Southern by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Insight Inv LLC now owns 10,530 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $738,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN increased its position in Southern by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN now owns 20,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,454,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CNB Bank increased its position in Southern by 23.9% in the fourth quarter. CNB Bank now owns 778 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Southern from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Southern from $67.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $78.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Barclays increased their price target on Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $76.36.

Southern Trading Down 0.0 %

SO traded down $0.01 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $77.67. The company had a trading volume of 233,840 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,652,874. The stock has a market cap of $84.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.07, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.51. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $71.85. The Southern Company has a 52 week low of $61.56 and a 52 week high of $80.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.13. Southern had a return on equity of 12.07% and a net margin of 16.74%. The business had revenue of $6.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.59 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.79 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 3.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 20th were given a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.71%. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 17th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.42%.

Insider Transactions at Southern

In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total transaction of $684,815.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,504 shares in the company, valued at $9,117,660.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern 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.