Capital Investment Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO - Free Report) by 2.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 592,879 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 16,444 shares during the quarter. Southern comprises 1.1% of Capital Investment Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 24th largest position. Capital Investment Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.05% of Southern worth $54,515,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of SO. Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Southern by 49.2% during the fourth quarter. Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,963 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $738,000 after acquiring an additional 2,957 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in Southern by 9,665.0% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 269,319 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $22,170,000 after purchasing an additional 266,561 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its stake in Southern by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 148,752 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $12,245,000 after acquiring an additional 5,836 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth approximately $635,000. Finally, Platform Technology Partners grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 3,727 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $307,000 after purchasing an additional 299 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. KeyCorp cut Southern from a "sector weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and set a $78.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Southern from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $94.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $93.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a report on Friday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $92.64.

Southern Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of Southern stock opened at $88.26 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The Southern Company has a 52-week low of $76.96 and a 52-week high of $94.45. The firm has a market cap of $97.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.38. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $89.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.28.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The business had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.03 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This is an increase from Southern's previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.35%. Southern's dividend payout ratio is presently 70.64%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total value of $2,997,532.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 106,819 shares in the company, valued at $9,946,985.28. This trade represents a 23.16% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.16% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.

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