Southern Company (The) $SO Shares Sold by Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. reduced its stake in Southern Company by 6.4%, selling over 1 million shares and now holds approximately 1.35% of the company's stock, valued at $1.37 billion.
• Southern Company reported Q2 earnings of $0.91 EPS, underperforming against analyst expectations of $0.99 EPS, but showing a 7.9% year-over-year revenue growth with revenues of $6.97 billion.
• The firm declared a quarterly dividend of $0.74 per share, resulting in a 3.1% annualized dividend yield, with a payout ratio of 76.09% as the company continues to distribute returns to shareholders.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lessened its holdings in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO - Free Report) by 6.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,866,776 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 1,009,664 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned 1.35% of Southern worth $1,367,002,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Investors Research Corp raised its position in Southern by 400.0% in the first quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 270 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the period. Cheviot Value Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Southern in the first quarter valued at $33,000. Accredited Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Southern in the first quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Rossby Financial LCC acquired a new position in Southern in the 1st quarter valued at about $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Southern

In related news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 13,158 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total value of $1,250,010.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 93,661 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,897,795. This represents a 12.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.16% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on SO. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. KeyCorp downgraded shares of 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. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wall Street Zen cut Southern from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on Southern from $98.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Southern has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $94.36.

Southern Price Performance

NYSE SO traded down $0.1760 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $94.4440. The stock had a trading volume of 3,304,937 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,604,726. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $92.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $90.62. The company has a market cap of $103.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 0.38. Southern Company has a 52-week low of $80.46 and a 52-week high of $96.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.08). Southern had a net margin of 15.10% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The firm had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.10 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. Southern has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.500 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 18th will be given a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 18th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. Southern's payout ratio is presently 76.09%.

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.