Horan Securities Inc. Has $209,000 Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Horan Securities Inc. decreased its position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,542 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 154 shares during the quarter. Horan Securities Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $209,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of SO. Financial Enhancement Group LLC acquired a new stake in Southern during the fourth quarter worth approximately $326,000. OneAscent Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern in the 3rd quarter valued at $576,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 108,361 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,772,000 after acquiring an additional 5,589 shares during the period. Verity & Verity LLC boosted its stake in Southern by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 201,971 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,626,000 after acquiring an additional 5,434 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its holdings in Southern by 94.4% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 288,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,033,000 after purchasing an additional 140,151 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Scotiabank increased their price target on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Guggenheim downgraded Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.54.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total value of $100,811.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This trade represents a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $1,250,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares in the company, valued at $1,138,296. This trade represents a 52.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Southern Stock Up 3.2 %

Southern stock opened at $91.54 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market cap of $100.40 billion, a PE ratio of 22.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $67.53 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $85.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $87.00.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. Research analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Southern’s payout ratio is 71.82%.

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.