Breakwater Capital Group Has $405,000 Stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Breakwater Capital Group boosted its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 7.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,644 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 368 shares during the period. Breakwater Capital Group’s holdings in Southern were worth $405,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Trilogy Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the first quarter valued at about $320,000. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 3.0% during the first quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 168,993 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,124,000 after purchasing an additional 4,923 shares during the period. Coston McIsaac & Partners raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.0% during the first quarter. Coston McIsaac & Partners now owns 73,048 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,239,000 after purchasing an additional 2,807 shares during the period. Vicus Capital acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the first quarter valued at about $280,000. Finally, Alpha Omega Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 13.6% during the first quarter. Alpha Omega Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,332 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $239,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SO has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America upped 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. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Southern from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 24th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $72.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $76.14.

Southern Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of SO stock opened at $77.57 on Monday. The Southern Company has a 52-week low of $61.56 and a 52-week high of $80.84. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $72.27. The company has a market capitalization of $84.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.04, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.51.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $6.65 billion for 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.79 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th were paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. This is a boost from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 17th. Southern’s payout ratio is presently 74.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total value of $684,815.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,504 shares in the company, valued at $9,117,660.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern Company 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.