Northstar Advisory Group LLC Sells 496 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Northstar Advisory Group LLC lessened its holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 6.0% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,710 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 496 shares during the period. Northstar Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $709,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Southern by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 102,790,453 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,461,710,000 after buying an additional 698,422 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Southern by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,050,209 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,056,441,000 after acquiring an additional 528,870 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,805,269 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $889,490,000 after purchasing an additional 460,594 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Southern during the 4th quarter worth $848,019,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Southern by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,599,710 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $543,288,000 after purchasing an additional 194,114 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on SO shares. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southern from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $102.00 to $100.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $92.64.

Southern Price Performance

NYSE SO opened at $88.26 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $89.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $87.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.01, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The Southern Company has a 12-month low of $76.96 and a 12-month high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. The firm had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were given a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.35%. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern’s payout ratio is currently 70.64%.

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.