The Southern Company Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.72 (NYSE:SO)

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 15th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.72 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, December 6th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.17%.

Southern has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.1% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 24 years. Southern has a payout ratio of 66.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Southern to earn $4.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 67.0%.

Southern Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of SO traded up $0.94 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $90.78. The stock had a trading volume of 2,007,418 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,443,941. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $88.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $81.20. Southern has a 12-month low of $64.53 and a 12-month high of $91.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market cap of $99.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.52.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.10 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.88% and a net margin of 17.67%. The company’s revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.79 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Southern will post 4.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on SO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective 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 research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of Southern from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $94.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Mizuho downgraded Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, September 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $89.07.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Sterling A. Jr. Spainhour sold 2,380 shares of the business’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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,500 shares in the company, valued at $1,112,375. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Sterling A. Jr. Spainhour sold 2,380 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.99, for a total transaction of $211,796.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,500 shares in the company, valued at $1,112,375. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total transaction of $587,830.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,467 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,981,575.18. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 38,945 shares of company stock worth $3,488,826. Insiders own 0.18% 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.