Lindbrook Capital LLC Has $481,000 Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 19.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,849 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 957 shares during the quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $481,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern by 168.1% in the third quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 195 shares during the period. YANKCOM Partnership bought a new position in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern in the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, WFA Asset Management Corp increased its position in shares of Southern by 84.9% during the fourth quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on SO. Mizuho raised their target price on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.54.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $88.69 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.67. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $84.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $86.97. The stock has a market cap of $97.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.12, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.53. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $67.53 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $6.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.90 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.25%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.82%.

Insider Activity at Southern

In related news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total transaction of $100,811.25. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This trade represents a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the company’s 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 owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,138,296. This trade represents a 52.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is owned by 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.