Heritage Wealth Management Inc. Invests $372,000 in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Heritage Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 4,766 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $372,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SO. SCP Investment LP bought a new stake in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $548,000. KBC Group NV raised its stake in Southern by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 73,212 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,134,000 after buying an additional 5,785 shares during the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Southern by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 121,676 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,532,000 after buying an additional 10,531 shares during the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Southern by 23.6% during the fourth quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 8,713 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after buying an additional 1,662 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in Southern by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 131,279 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,205,000 after buying an additional 2,804 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of Southern stock opened at $91.60 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $87.60 and a 200 day moving average of $80.05. The Southern Company has a 12 month low of $61.56 and a 12 month high of $91.82. The firm has a market cap of $100.16 billion, a PE ratio of 23.67, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.19. Southern had a return on equity of 12.88% and a net margin of 17.67%. The business had revenue of $6.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.79 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 19th were given a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.14%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, EVP Sterling A. Jr. Spainhour sold 2,380 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.99, for a total transaction of $211,796.20. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,500 shares in the company, valued at $1,112,375. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total value of $587,830.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,467 shares in the company, valued at $3,981,575.18. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Sterling A. Jr. Spainhour sold 2,380 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.99, for a total value of $211,796.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,500 shares in the company, valued at $1,112,375. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,845 shares of company stock worth $1,335,135 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on SO. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Southern from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Southern from $83.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Southern from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on Southern from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Southern from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $88.27.

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.