KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC Has $306,000 Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 6.8% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 4,266 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 272 shares during the quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $306,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Southern by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,572,665 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,444,343,000 after acquiring an additional 352,023 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Southern by 53.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,444,163 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,153,065,000 after acquiring an additional 5,707,845 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Southern by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,737,843 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $694,953,000 after acquiring an additional 163,986 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Southern by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,811,307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $634,988,000 after acquiring an additional 349,122 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter valued at $631,068,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Southern Price Performance

SO opened at $78.44 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $85.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.27, a PEG ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $76.73 and a 200 day moving average of $72.03. 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 Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $61.56 and a fifty-two week high of $80.84.

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

Southern Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th were given a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 17th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.67%. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.42%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America boosted their target price 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 lowered their price objective on shares of Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective 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. UBS Group downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $78.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southern has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $76.36.

Insider Activity at Southern

In related news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total transaction of $684,815.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,504 shares in the company, valued at $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.

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.