The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Shares Acquired by Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC

Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 6.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,211 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 352 shares during the quarter. Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $511,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its position in Southern by 17,272.6% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 14,647,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,320,866,000 after purchasing an additional 14,562,689 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Southern by 8,741.6% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,502,813 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $135,524,000 after purchasing an additional 1,485,816 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp lifted its position in Southern by 72.4% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,077,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $277,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,293,072 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Southern by 4.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,521,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,203,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075,768 shares during the period. Finally, Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH acquired a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at about $51,605,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southern presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.54.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total value 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 $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $1,250,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,138,296. The trade was a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Southern Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of SO opened at $88.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $86.82. The Southern Company has a 1-year low of $65.99 and a 1-year high of $94.45. The stock has a market cap of $96.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.53.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.90 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. Equities analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.26%. Southern’s payout ratio is currently 71.82%.

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.