Parallel Advisors LLC Acquires 305 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 3.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,853 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 305 shares during the quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $764,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SO. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Southern by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,089,634 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,180,430,000 after purchasing an additional 481,071 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Southern by 45.9% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,994,733 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,721,382,000 after buying an additional 7,550,570 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $631,068,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Southern by 36.0% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,529,052 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $247,457,000 after acquiring an additional 934,447 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates raised its position in shares of Southern by 21.3% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 2,572,230 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $199,528,000 after acquiring an additional 452,075 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Southern from $77.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $72.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Wolfe Research lowered Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Mizuho lowered Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on Southern from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $84.71.

Southern Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:SO opened at $89.90 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $85.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.35. The Southern Company has a one year low of $61.56 and a one year high of $90.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.30 billion, a PE ratio of 23.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.52.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $6.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.10 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.88% and a net margin of 17.67%. Southern’s revenue was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.79 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, CEO Anthony L. Wilson sold 6,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total value of $535,509.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 85,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,620,831.49. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Anthony L. Wilson sold 6,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total transaction of $535,509.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 85,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,620,831.49. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,981,575.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 27,845 shares of company stock worth $2,266,455 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Southern 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.