City State Bank Grows Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

City State Bank lifted its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,187 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the quarter. City State Bank’s holdings in Southern were worth $592,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SO. OneAscent Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Southern during the 3rd quarter worth about $576,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Southern by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 108,361 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,772,000 after acquiring an additional 5,589 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in Southern by 94.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 288,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,033,000 after acquiring an additional 140,151 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its position in Southern by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,245,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $292,679,000 after purchasing an additional 15,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HBW Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Southern by 219.4% in the 3rd quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC now owns 8,971 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $809,000 after purchasing an additional 6,162 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of Southern stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,592,958.70. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on SO shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Mizuho downgraded Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, September 16th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Southern from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southern has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.14.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO stock traded down $0.61 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $80.71. The company had a trading volume of 728,486 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,356,566. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $85.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $86.13. The Southern Company has a 52-week low of $65.80 and a 52-week high of $94.45. The stock has a market cap of $88.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.77, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.66.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $7.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.14 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.78% and a net margin of 17.87%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.42 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th were issued a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.57%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.98%.

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.