FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH Reduces Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH trimmed its holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 1.4% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 14,281 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,313,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Investors Research Corp raised its stake in Southern by 400.0% in the first quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 270 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Southern in the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Sierra Ocean LLC acquired a new stake in Southern during the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Elequin Capital LP grew its position in Southern by 60.6% in the 4th quarter. Elequin Capital LP now owns 498 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised Southern from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $102.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays raised their price objective on Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.00.

Southern Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of Southern stock opened at $90.22 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $99.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.50, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $89.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $87.30. The Southern Company has a 12-month low of $76.96 and a 12-month high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $7.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.17 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. Southern’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.03 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.28%. Southern’s dividend 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.