Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. Grows Stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. lifted its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 19.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,281 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 878 shares during the quarter. Ausdal Financial Partners Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $435,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. YANKCOM Partnership purchased a new position in shares of Southern in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Southern during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its holdings in Southern by 84.9% in the 4th quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its position in Southern by 244.4% in the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SO. Guggenheim lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Scotiabank increased their target price on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.46.

Southern Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of Southern stock opened at $90.12 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.47, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $67.53 and a twelve month high of $94.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $87.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.26.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. Equities research analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.20%. Southern’s payout ratio is currently 71.82%.

Insider Activity

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total transaction of $2,997,532.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 106,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,946,985.28. This trade represents a 23.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This represents a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784. 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.