343,619 Shares in Southern Company (The) $SO Acquired by VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 343,619 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $32,888,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 9,736.0% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 125,596,883 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,020,878,000 after purchasing an additional 124,319,975 shares during the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Southern by 197.9% in the second quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 26,269 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,514,000 after purchasing an additional 17,451 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital grew its stake in Southern by 3.2% in the second quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 18,489 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,768,000 after purchasing an additional 576 shares during the last quarter. Kintra Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Southern by 49.6% in the second quarter. Kintra Wealth LLC now owns 8,368 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $776,000 after purchasing an additional 2,773 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Southern by 9.8% in the second quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 210,104 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,109,000 after purchasing an additional 18,795 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Southern from $100.00 to $97.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 13th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $79.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Southern from $101.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Southern from $92.00 to $89.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $99.00 price target on shares of Southern in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.09.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $87.90 on Tuesday. Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $83.80 and a fifty-two week high of $100.83. The company has a market cap of $101.12 billion, a PE ratio of 21.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.79. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $93.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $94.22.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $6.98 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.23 billion. Southern had a net margin of 15.43% and a return on equity of 12.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.79 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Southern Company will post 4.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. Southern’s payout ratio is currently 72.90%.

Southern Company Profile

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an Atlanta-based energy holding company that provides electric and gas utility services and owns power generation assets across the United States. Founded in 1945, the company operates a portfolio of regulated electric utilities and affiliated businesses that generate, transmit and distribute electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Southern’s principal regulated electric subsidiaries include Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power, which serve large portions of the southeastern United States.