Southern (NYSE:SO) Releases FY24 Earnings Guidance

Southern (NYSE:SO) issued an update on its FY24 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $3.95-$4.05 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03. Southern also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 3.950-4.050 EPS.

Southern Trading Up 3.6 %

Shares of SO traded up $2.98 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $86.50. The stock had a trading volume of 4,567,174 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,465,153. Southern has a 1 year low of $61.56 and a 1 year high of $86.80. The firm has a market cap of $94.58 billion, a PE ratio of 21.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.51. 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 stock’s 50 day moving average is $79.31 and its 200 day moving average is $73.80.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.13. Southern had a net margin of 16.74% and a return on equity of 12.07%. The business had revenue of $6.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.59 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.79 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Southern will post 4.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.33%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 19th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a sector outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. UBS Group downgraded shares of Southern from a buy rating to a neutral rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Southern from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Argus raised their target price on shares of Southern from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southern currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $76.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director The Ernest J. Moniz 2018 Trust 8,948 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Anthony L. Wilson sold 6,900 shares of Southern stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total transaction of $535,509.00. Following the completion of 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 SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director The Ernest J. Moniz 2018 Trust 8,948 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The disclosure for this trade can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.