Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC Grows Stock Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC lifted its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 32.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,008 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,230 shares during the period. Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $412,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SO. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,521,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,203,386,000 after acquiring an additional 1,075,768 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its position in Southern by 17,272.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 14,647,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,320,866,000 after acquiring an additional 14,562,689 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Southern by 0.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,405,596 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $577,657,000 after purchasing an additional 52,414 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 0.5% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,245,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $292,679,000 after purchasing an additional 15,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp lifted its holdings in Southern by 72.4% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,077,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $277,570,000 after buying an additional 1,293,072 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on SO shares. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. 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 research note on Friday, November 22nd. One 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.14.

Southern Trading Down 3.3 %

NYSE SO opened at $83.67 on Wednesday. The Southern Company has a 52-week low of $65.80 and a 52-week high of $94.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $84.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $86.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $91.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.10. Southern had a return on equity of 12.78% and a net margin of 17.87%. The firm had revenue of $7.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.42 earnings per share. Southern’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.04 EPS for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.44%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.98%.

Insider Activity at Southern

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total transaction of $100,503.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.