Park Place Capital Corp Sells 1,502 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Park Place Capital Corp reduced its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 13.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 10,008 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,502 shares during the period. Park Place Capital Corp’s holdings in Southern were worth $718,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SO. Claro Advisors LLC boosted its position in Southern by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 24,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,726,000 after acquiring an additional 864 shares in the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Southern by 309.9% in the first quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 14,871 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,067,000 after purchasing an additional 11,243 shares in the last quarter. Kowal Investment Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern by 7.5% during the first quarter. Kowal Investment Group LLC now owns 8,476 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $608,000 after buying an additional 589 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 15,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,099,000 after buying an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aviance Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern in the 1st quarter worth approximately $530,000. 64.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on SO. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. UBS Group lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Southern from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Southern from $72.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southern has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $76.14.

Insider Activity

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total value of $684,815.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,504 shares in the company, valued at $9,117,660.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of Southern stock traded down $0.57 during trading on Monday, hitting $77.00. 2,932,886 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,645,003. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.90, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.51. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.27. The Southern Company has a 52-week low of $61.56 and a 52-week high of $80.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.92.

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

Southern Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 20th were paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This is a boost from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 17th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.74%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.42%.

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.