Crew Capital Management Ltd. Trims Stock Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Crew Capital Management Ltd. decreased its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 15.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,698 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 500 shares during the quarter. Crew Capital Management Ltd.’s holdings in Southern were worth $243,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of SO. Capital International Investors increased its position in Southern by 45.9% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,994,733 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,721,382,000 after buying an additional 7,550,570 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in Southern by 2,719.7% in the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 872,373 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,670,000 after buying an additional 841,435 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its position in shares of Southern by 7,657.0% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 571,148 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $44,304,000 after purchasing an additional 563,785 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in shares of Southern by 35.0% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 1,929,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $138,457,000 after purchasing an additional 500,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Southern by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,089,634 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,180,430,000 after purchasing an additional 481,071 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank increased their target price on Southern from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Southern in a research report on Friday, September 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $94.00 target price for the company. Wolfe Research cut Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Southern from $77.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on Southern from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Southern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $89.07.

Insider Transactions at Southern

In other news, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total value of $587,830.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,467 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,981,575.18. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total value of $587,830.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,467 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,981,575.18. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Sterling A. Jr. Spainhour sold 2,380 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.99, for a total value of $211,796.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,112,375. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 38,945 shares of company stock worth $3,488,826. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Southern Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:SO traded down $0.49 during trading on Monday, hitting $92.75. The company had a trading volume of 761,203 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,422,721. The stock has a market cap of $101.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 0.52. The Southern Company has a one year low of $64.53 and a one year high of $93.73. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $88.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.79. 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 data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $6.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.10 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.88% and a net margin of 17.67%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.79 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.11%. Southern’s payout ratio is 68.57%.

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.