BMO Capital Markets Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Southern (NYSE:SO) Stock Price

Southern (NYSE:SO) had its target price cut by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $99.00 to $97.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price target points to a potential upside of 9.56% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Southern from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Southern from $80.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Scotiabank increased their price target on Southern from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays increased their price target on Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $89.27.

Southern Price Performance

SO stock opened at $88.54 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $96.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.59, a PEG ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 0.52. Southern has a twelve month low of $65.80 and a twelve month high of $94.45. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $83.26. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $6.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.90% and a net margin of 17.87%. The company’s revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.79 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Southern will post 4.02 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Sterling A. Jr. Spainhour sold 2,380 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,500 shares in the company, valued at $1,112,375. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO James Y. Kerr II sold 30,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.64, for a total transaction of $2,689,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 145,088 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,005,688.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Sterling A. Jr. Spainhour sold 2,380 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.99, for a total value of $211,796.20. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,112,375. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 38,945 shares of company stock worth $3,488,826 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Southern

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SO. Capital International Investors increased its position in Southern by 45.9% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,994,733 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,721,382,000 after purchasing an additional 7,550,570 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Southern by 8,741.6% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,502,813 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $135,524,000 after purchasing an additional 1,485,816 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in Southern by 2,719.7% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 872,373 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,670,000 after purchasing an additional 841,435 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its position in Southern by 7,657.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 571,148 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $44,304,000 after purchasing an additional 563,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Southern by 35.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 1,929,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $138,457,000 after purchasing an additional 500,000 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

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.