The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the fourteen ratings firms that are covering the stock, 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 brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $83.71.

SO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Argus increased their price objective on Southern from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Southern from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $87.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Southern from $72.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd.

Southern Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of SO opened at $89.64 on Wednesday. Southern has a fifty-two week low of $61.56 and a fifty-two week high of $90.34. The business has a 50-day moving average of $84.48 and a 200 day moving average of $77.72. The firm has a market cap of $98.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 17.67% and a return on equity of 12.88%. The company’s revenue was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.79 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Southern will post 4.01 EPS for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 19th were paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southern news, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total value of $587,830.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,467 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,981,575.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total value of $587,830.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,467 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,981,575.18. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Sloane N. Drake sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total transaction of $931,320.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly 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 ninety days, insiders have sold 27,845 shares of company stock valued at $2,266,455. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Southern

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SO. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Southern by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,089,634 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,180,430,000 after buying an additional 481,071 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of Southern by 45.9% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,994,733 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,721,382,000 after acquiring an additional 7,550,570 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Southern in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $631,068,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Southern by 36.0% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,529,052 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $247,457,000 after purchasing an additional 934,447 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in shares of Southern by 21.3% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 2,572,230 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $199,528,000 after purchasing an additional 452,075 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

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.