Raleigh Capital Management Inc. Sells 5,298 Shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO)

Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO - Free Report) by 23.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,575 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 5,298 shares during the period. Raleigh Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Southern were worth $1,616,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Investors Research Corp grew its stake in Southern by 400.0% in the 1st quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 270 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp purchased a new position in Southern in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Rossby Financial LCC purchased a new position in Southern in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Elequin Capital LP grew its stake in Southern by 60.6% in the 4th quarter. Elequin Capital LP now owns 498 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Southern in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on SO. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southern from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $102.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Guggenheim restated a "neutral" rating and set a $93.00 price target on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target 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. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Southern from $91.00 to $90.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Southern from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $94.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $92.93.

Southern Trading Down 1.0%

Southern stock traded down $0.91 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $90.75. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,015,486 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,660,117. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The stock has a market cap of $99.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.38. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $89.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $87.96. Southern Company has a 12 month low of $77.62 and a 12 month high of $94.45.

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

Southern Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.26%. This is an increase from Southern's previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern's dividend payout ratio is 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.