Empowered Funds LLC Grows Stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 23,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 915 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $2,078,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Southern by 1,361.6% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 3,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $229,000 after buying an additional 2,982 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 241.7% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 44,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,173,000 after purchasing an additional 31,292 shares during the period. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC increased its holdings in Southern by 31.5% during the first quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 6,093 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $437,000 after buying an additional 1,459 shares during the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. lifted its position in Southern by 23.1% during the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 4,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $337,000 after purchasing an additional 881 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Shell Asset Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 20.3% during the 1st quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 22,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,624,000 after acquiring an additional 3,816 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on SO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Southern from $80.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Wolfe Research lowered Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Barclays raised 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. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, September 20th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $94.00 price target for the company. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $89.27.

Southern Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of SO stock opened at $87.97 on Thursday. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $65.80 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $96.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.46, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.52. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $89.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $84.57.

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

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO James Y. Kerr II sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.64, for a total value of $2,689,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 145,088 shares in the company, valued at $13,005,688.32. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total transaction of $587,830.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,467 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,981,575.18. This trade represents a 12.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.