Centaurus Financial Inc. Acquires 1,249 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Centaurus Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 28,878 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,249 shares during the quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $2,240,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. bought a new position in Southern in the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new position in Southern in the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in Southern by 62.0% in the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 444 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Southern by 3,628.6% in the first quarter. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 522 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 508 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in Southern in the fourth quarter worth approximately $39,000. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on SO shares. Scotiabank raised their target price on Southern from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Bank of America raised their target price on Southern from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Mizuho lowered Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, September 16th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Southern from $87.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Southern from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $88.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total value of $587,830.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,467 shares in the company, valued at $3,981,575.18. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total value of $587,830.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,467 shares in the company, valued at $3,981,575.18. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Sterling A. Jr. Spainhour sold 2,380 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.99, for a total value of $211,796.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,112,375. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Performance

NYSE:SO opened at $90.70 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $87.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $80.12. The Southern Company has a 1 year low of $62.26 and a 1 year high of $91.86. The company has a market capitalization of $99.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.52.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.19. Southern had a return on equity of 12.88% and a net margin of 17.67%. The business had revenue of $6.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.79 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 19th were given a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.42%.

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.