The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Shares Purchased by Simon Quick Advisors LLC

Simon Quick Advisors LLC raised its holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 11.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,108 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 522 shares during the quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $421,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of SO. Evergreen Capital Management LLC raised its position in Southern by 12.4% in the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,606 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $512,000 after purchasing an additional 731 shares in the last quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in Southern in the second quarter valued at approximately $8,298,000. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Southern by 9.2% during the 2nd quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 34,542 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,679,000 after acquiring an additional 2,901 shares in the last quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC acquired a new position in Southern during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $6,161,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,475,372 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $114,445,000 after purchasing an additional 15,076 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total transaction of $100,503.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on SO. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays boosted their target price on Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.14.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of SO opened at $82.23 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $90.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.52. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $65.80 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $84.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $86.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its 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 return on equity of 12.78% and a net margin of 17.87%. The company had revenue of $7.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.14 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.42 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.04 earnings per share for the current year.

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.