The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the fourteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $90.54.

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Guggenheim lowered shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $1,250,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,138,296. The trade was a 52.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total transaction of $100,503.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,592,958.70. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,835 shares of company stock valued at $1,451,754 in the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SO. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Southern in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Southern by 168.1% during the third quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position in shares of Southern by 84.9% during the fourth quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its position in shares of Southern by 244.4% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Down 1.0 %

NYSE:SO opened at $89.95 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.67. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $84.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $86.94. Southern has a fifty-two week low of $67.53 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.90 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Southern will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.82%.

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.