SteelPeak Wealth LLC Buys 181 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

SteelPeak Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 2.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,825 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 181 shares during the quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $633,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Rockline Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $1,945,000. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $16,067,000. Angeles Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Angeles Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,202 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $365,000 after purchasing an additional 612 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 65,937 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,624,000 after purchasing an additional 2,691 shares during the period. Finally, Zullo Investment Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Zullo Investment Group Inc. now owns 3,437 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $241,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Southern from $72.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $76.00 price target (up from $72.00) on shares of Southern in a research report on Monday, April 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $76.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total value of $684,815.04. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,504 shares in the company, valued at $9,117,660.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SO traded down $0.47 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $77.57. The company had a trading volume of 6,226,973 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,873,369. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The company has a market cap of $84.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.04, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.51. The Southern Company has a 12-month low of $61.56 and a 12-month high of $80.84. The company has a fifty day moving average of $77.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $72.27.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $6.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.59 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.07% and a net margin of 16.74%. Southern’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.79 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th were issued a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 17th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.71%. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 74.42%.

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.