GF Fund Management CO. LTD. Increases Holdings in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO)

GF Fund Management CO. LTD. increased its position in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO - Free Report) by 4.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 83,355 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,884 shares during the quarter. GF Fund Management CO. LTD.'s holdings in Southern were worth $7,664,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Southern by 23.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 21,253 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,954,000 after acquiring an additional 4,005 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern by 56.6% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,547 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 1,282 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Southern by 4.1% in the first quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,645 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Southern by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 398,624 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $32,815,000 after buying an additional 15,923 shares during the period. Finally, M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of Southern by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 164,768 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $13,564,000 after buying an additional 1,785 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on SO. Jefferies Financial Group raised Southern from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $102.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Southern from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $94.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Southern has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $92.93.

Southern Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of SO traded up $0.15 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $91.66. The stock had a trading volume of 3,433,100 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,674,066. Southern Company has a 12 month low of $77.62 and a 12 month high of $94.45. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $89.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $87.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. The company has a market capitalization of $100.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.38.

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

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 a positive change from Southern's previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.23%. Southern's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 70.64%.

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.