Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) Shares to Pay Quarterly Dividend of $0.76

Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 16th will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, December 7th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 16th.

Southern has a dividend payout ratio of 66.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Southern to earn $4.92 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.04 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 61.8%.

Southern Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of Southern stock traded up $0.01 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $90.72. 1,300,344 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,824,551. Southern has a 1 year low of $81.69 and a 1 year high of $99.58. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $87.65 and its 200 day moving average is $92.05. 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 firm has a market cap of $104.35 billion, a PE ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.31.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.12. Southern had a return on equity of 12.93% and a net margin of 15.43%. The firm had revenue of $6.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.23 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.79 earnings per share. Southern’s revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Southern will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on SO shares. DA Davidson set a $98.00 target price on shares of Southern in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho set a $106.00 price target on shares of Southern in a report on Friday, July 31st. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Southern from $97.00 to $93.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating on shares of Southern in a report on Wednesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.22.

Southern Company Profile

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an energy holding company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Through its subsidiaries, the company generates, transmits, distributes and sells electricity, while also providing natural gas distribution and related energy services.

Southern’s electric utility operations include Alabama Power, Georgia Power and Mississippi Power, which serve customers across Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. The company’s generation portfolio includes nuclear, natural gas, coal, hydroelectric and renewable energy resources.