The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) have earned an average rating of “Hold” from the fourteen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $83.71.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Southern from $83.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. 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. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price 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. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Southern from $80.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, CEO Anthony L. Wilson sold 6,900 shares of Southern 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 85,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,620,831.49. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Anthony L. Wilson sold 6,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total transaction of $535,509.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 85,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,620,831.49. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Sloane N. Drake sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total value of $931,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 16,771 shares in the company, valued at $1,301,597.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 27,845 shares of company stock valued at $2,266,455 in the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Southern

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Gilbert & Cook Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 11,202 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $785,000 after buying an additional 462 shares during the last quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter worth approximately $233,000. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $219,000. SCP Investment LP acquired a new stake in shares of Southern in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $548,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Southern by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,978,884 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $138,760,000 after purchasing an additional 18,841 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of SO opened at $89.44 on Wednesday. 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 $97.80 billion, a PE ratio of 23.11, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.52. Southern has a twelve month low of $61.56 and a twelve month high of $90.34. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $85.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.19.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $6.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.10 billion. Southern had a net margin of 17.67% and a return on equity of 12.88%. Southern’s quarterly revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.79 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Southern will post 4.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th were given a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 19th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.22%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.42%.

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.