Vaughan David Investments LLC IL Raises Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Vaughan David Investments LLC IL grew its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 569,967 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,314 shares during the period. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL owned approximately 0.05% of Southern worth $44,212,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Gilbert & Cook Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 11,202 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $785,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares during the last quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $233,000. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $219,000. SCP Investment LP purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $548,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,978,884 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $138,760,000 after purchasing an additional 18,841 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on SO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $80.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $87.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.71.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SO opened at $89.64 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 fifty day moving average price of $84.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.72. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $61.56 and a fifty-two week high of $90.34. The firm has a market cap of $98.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.52.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.19. Southern had a net margin of 17.67% and a return on equity of 12.88%. The firm had revenue of $6.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.79 earnings per share. Southern’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. Southern’s payout ratio is 74.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

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

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.