Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) Shares Acquired by DAVENPORT & Co LLC

DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its stake in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO - Free Report) by 3.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 93,454 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 3,194 shares during the quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC's holdings in Southern were worth $8,592,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter worth about $848,019,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter worth about $315,290,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in Southern by 325.7% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 4,322,931 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $355,864,000 after purchasing an additional 3,307,527 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Southern by 11,230.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,954,213 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $179,690,000 after purchasing an additional 1,936,965 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in Southern by 562.9% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,368,788 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $112,679,000 after purchasing an additional 1,162,288 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on SO shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southern from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $102.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial started coverage on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $98.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $92.93.

Southern Stock Down 0.2%

NYSE SO traded down $0.18 on Friday, hitting $90.97. The stock had a trading volume of 3,467,244 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,669,711. The business's fifty day moving average price is $89.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $87.81. The stock has a market cap of $99.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Southern Company has a 52-week low of $77.47 and a 52-week high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.17 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.70% and a net margin of 16.54%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.03 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th were given 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.25%. Southern's dividend payout ratio is presently 70.64%.

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.