5,301 Shares in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Bought by Destination Wealth Management

Destination Wealth Management bought a new position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 5,301 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $478,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the 2nd quarter worth $379,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Southern by 2.2% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 43,243 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,102,000 after buying an additional 920 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Southern by 6.1% in the second quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 84,229 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,876,000 after buying an additional 4,815 shares during the period. Gradient Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 3,309 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $257,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the period. Finally, Tyche Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Southern by 13.6% in the 2nd quarter. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC now owns 27,476 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,131,000 after acquiring an additional 3,291 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America boosted their price target on Southern from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Southern in a report on Friday, September 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $94.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO James Y. Kerr II sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.64, for a total value of $2,689,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 145,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,005,688.32. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Southern Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $83.37 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $88.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $85.47. The Southern Company has a 1 year low of $65.80 and a 1 year high of $94.45. The company has a market cap of $91.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.39, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.51.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $7.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.14 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.78% and a net margin of 17.87%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th were issued a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.45%. Southern’s payout ratio is 66.98%.

About Southern

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.