Scarborough Advisors LLC Invests $31,000 in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 443 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $31,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,572,665 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,444,343,000 after purchasing an additional 352,023 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 53.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,444,163 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,153,065,000 after purchasing an additional 5,707,845 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,737,843 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $694,953,000 after purchasing an additional 163,986 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,811,307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $634,988,000 after purchasing an additional 349,122 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Southern during the 4th quarter worth approximately $631,068,000. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Southern Trading Up 0.3 %

SO stock opened at $77.94 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $76.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $71.89. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $61.56 and a fifty-two week high of $80.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $85.22 billion, a PE ratio of 20.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.51.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.13. Southern had a net margin of 16.74% and a return on equity of 12.07%. The firm had revenue of $6.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.59 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.79 earnings per share. Southern’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 3.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th were issued a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 17th. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.70%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on SO. Argus raised their target price on shares of Southern from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $76.00 target price (up previously from $72.00) on shares of Southern in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Southern in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Southern has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $76.36.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total transaction of $684,815.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,117,660.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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.