The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the fourteen ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation and seven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $83.14.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on SO shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Southern from $77.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Wolfe Research downgraded Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Bank of America increased their price objective on Southern from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Southern from $83.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Southern from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Sloane N. Drake sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total value of $931,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,771 shares in the company, valued at $1,301,597.31. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Anthony L. Wilson sold 6,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total value of $535,509.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 85,309 shares in the company, valued at $6,620,831.49. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Sloane N. Drake sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total value of $931,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,301,597.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,280 shares of company stock worth $1,678,625. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Southern

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in SO. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter valued at $174,000. SVB Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 17,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,242,000 after acquiring an additional 1,424 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 186,963 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $13,110,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 100,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,064,000 after acquiring an additional 8,842 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OLD Second National Bank of Aurora boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora now owns 3,408 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $239,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO opened at $86.11 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $82.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The company has a market capitalization of $94.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.51. Southern has a 52-week low of $61.56 and a 52-week high of $89.68.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $6.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.88% and a net margin of 17.67%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.79 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Southern will post 4.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 19th will be given a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.34%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 19th. Southern’s payout ratio is 74.42%.

About Southern

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.