Gilbert & Cook Inc. Purchases 294 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,463 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 294 shares during the quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $861,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SO. Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Southern in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $364,000. OLD National Bancorp IN boosted its position in Southern by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 15,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,254,000 after buying an additional 893 shares in the last quarter. DMC Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. DMC Group LLC now owns 14,374 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,183,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Invesco LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter worth $213,000. Finally, Field & Main Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Field & Main Bank now owns 10,990 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $905,000 after acquiring an additional 740 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total value of $100,503.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Guggenheim lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays raised their target price on Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $90.14.

Southern Stock Up 1.2 %

NYSE:SO traded up $1.00 on Thursday, hitting $83.83. The stock had a trading volume of 208,837 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,960,471. The Southern Company has a 1 year low of $65.80 and a 1 year high of $94.45. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $84.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $86.57. The stock has a market cap of $91.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.10. Southern had a net margin of 17.87% and a return on equity of 12.78%. The company had revenue of $7.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.42 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.44%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 66.98%.

Southern 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.