The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Shares Bought by 1620 Investment Advisors Inc.

1620 Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,251 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $926,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SO. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Southern by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,521,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,203,386,000 after buying an additional 1,075,768 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,599,710 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $543,288,000 after purchasing an additional 194,114 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter worth approximately $315,290,000. Synovus Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 72.4% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,077,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $277,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,293,072 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,780,137 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $230,807,000 after purchasing an additional 284,022 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SO has been the topic of several recent research reports. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Southern from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Mizuho upped their price objective on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Guggenheim cut Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. One equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $91.00.

Southern Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $90.01 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $98.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.45, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The Southern Company has a 52-week low of $67.53 and a 52-week high of $94.45. The business’s 50 day moving average is $86.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $87.24.

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

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.82%.

Insider Transactions at Southern

In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total transaction of $2,997,532.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 106,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,946,985.28. This represents a 23.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total value of $1,250,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares in the company, valued at $1,138,296. This trade represents a 52.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.