Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Trims Stock Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. reduced its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 14,490 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 135 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,193,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its holdings in Southern by 31.6% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 138,447 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,485,000 after purchasing an additional 33,266 shares in the last quarter. United Advisor Group LLC increased its position in Southern by 24.9% during the 3rd quarter. United Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,492 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $315,000 after purchasing an additional 697 shares during the period. Hanlon Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $202,000. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Southern in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $242,000. Finally, HF Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 1.8% in the third quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 22,898 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,065,000 after buying an additional 408 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Mizuho lifted their price target 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, Guggenheim cut Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.54.

Southern Stock Performance

Southern stock opened at $88.64 on Thursday. 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 Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $67.53 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $84.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $86.95. The company has a market capitalization of $97.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.10, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.53.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.90 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.25%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total value of $1,250,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,138,296. The trade was a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total transaction of $100,811.25. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,148,284.90. This trade represents a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.