9258 Wealth Management LLC Grows Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

9258 Wealth Management LLC increased its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 26.7% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,583 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,176 shares during the period. 9258 Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $433,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Southern by 19.6% in the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 387,648 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,851,000 after acquiring an additional 63,647 shares during the period. Beaumont Asset Management L.L.C. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 2.8% in the second quarter. Beaumont Asset Management L.L.C. now owns 7,332 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $569,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the last quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. increased its holdings in Southern by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. now owns 8,570 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $665,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in Southern by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 390,162 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,265,000 after purchasing an additional 11,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Southern in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $211,000. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Anthony L. Wilson sold 6,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total transaction of $535,509.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 85,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,620,831.49. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Anthony L. Wilson sold 6,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total transaction of $535,509.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 85,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,620,831.49. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Sloane N. Drake sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total value of $931,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,771 shares in the company, valued at $1,301,597.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,280 shares of company stock valued at $1,678,625. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Southern from $83.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Southern from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Wolfe Research cut Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Southern from $77.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Southern currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.71.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SO opened at $89.51 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market cap of $97.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.52. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $83.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $77.11. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $61.56 and a fifty-two week high of $90.34.

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

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 19th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 19th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is 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.