Berkeley Capital Partners LLC Trims Stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Berkeley Capital Partners LLC reduced its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,938 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 231 shares during the period. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,147,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Southern during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. YANKCOM Partnership purchased a new stake in Southern during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Southern during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its holdings in Southern by 84.9% during the fourth quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in Southern by 244.4% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,138,296. This represents a 52.35 % 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, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total transaction of $100,811.25. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This represents a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on SO shares. Guggenheim cut shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.54.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SO opened at $89.65 on Thursday. 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 has a fifty day moving average price of $86.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $87.22. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $67.53 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45. The firm has a market cap of $98.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The business had revenue of $6.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.21%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.82%.

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.