Thrive Wealth Management LLC Buys 154 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Thrive Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 2.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,574 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 154 shares during the period. Thrive Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $543,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of SO. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Southern by 4.4% in the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 323,294 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $23,193,000 after purchasing an additional 13,728 shares during the last quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC grew its holdings in Southern by 6.2% in the first quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 55,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,948,000 after purchasing an additional 3,201 shares during the last quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC grew its holdings in Southern by 10.2% in the first quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC now owns 10,328 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $741,000 after purchasing an additional 958 shares during the last quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC grew its holdings in Southern by 10.4% in the first quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 13,812 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $991,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sovereign Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Southern by 6.4% in the first quarter. Sovereign Financial Group Inc. now owns 41,216 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,957,000 after purchasing an additional 2,473 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total transaction of $684,815.04. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,504 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,117,660.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on SO. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $72.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Southern from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. UBS Group lowered shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $78.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, 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 report on Friday, May 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $76.14.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of Southern stock traded down $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $77.80. The stock had a trading volume of 346,570 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,610,360. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $77.33 and its 200 day moving average is $72.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $85.07 billion, a PE ratio of 20.17, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.51. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $61.56 and a twelve month high of $80.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $6.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.59 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.74% and a return on equity of 12.07%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.79 EPS. Equities analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th were issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. 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. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.70%. Southern’s dividend 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.