Appleton Partners Inc. MA Sells 1,300 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Appleton Partners Inc. MA decreased its stake in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 23.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,356 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,300 shares during the quarter. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Southern were worth $312,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Southern by 0.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,572,665 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,444,343,000 after acquiring an additional 352,023 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of Southern by 53.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,444,163 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,153,065,000 after buying an additional 5,707,845 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 1.6% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,737,843 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $694,953,000 after buying an additional 163,986 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its position in Southern by 3.7% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,811,307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $634,988,000 after buying an additional 349,122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Southern during the 4th quarter worth $631,068,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Southern in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Southern from $67.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Southern presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $76.36.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,117,660.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of SO stock traded up $0.22 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $77.90. 742,787 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,657,224. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $85.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $71.85. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $61.56 and a fifty-two week high of $80.84.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $6.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.59 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.07% and a net margin of 16.74%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.79 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 3.99 EPS for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th were paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 17th. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Southern’s payout ratio is 74.42%.

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.