The Southern Company to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.72 (NYSE:SO)

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.72 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.44%.

Southern has increased its dividend by an average of 3.0% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 23 consecutive years. Southern has a payout ratio of 62.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Southern to earn $4.32 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 66.7%.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $83.67 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $84.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $86.55. Southern has a 1-year low of $65.80 and a 1-year high of $94.45. The firm has a market cap of $91.68 billion, a PE ratio of 19.46, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total transaction of $100,503.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 88,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.