Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) Shares Bought by OneAscent Financial Services LLC

OneAscent Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO - Free Report) by 176.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,062 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 14,072 shares during the quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC's holdings in Southern were worth $2,028,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at $848,019,000. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 325.7% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 4,322,931 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $355,864,000 after purchasing an additional 3,307,527 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 11,230.1% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,954,213 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $179,690,000 after purchasing an additional 1,936,965 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 562.9% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,368,788 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $112,679,000 after purchasing an additional 1,162,288 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 23.2% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,208,872 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $428,794,000 after purchasing an additional 979,756 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays lifted their target price on Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $93.00 target price on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southern from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and reduced their price target for the company from $102.00 to $100.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. KeyCorp lowered Southern from a "sector weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and set a $78.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on Southern in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $98.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southern presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $93.20.

Southern Trading Up 0.8%

SO stock opened at $94.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $103.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.46, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.38. Southern Company has a twelve month low of $80.46 and a twelve month high of $94.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. The business has a fifty day moving average of $90.04 and a 200-day moving average of $88.55.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $7.78 billion for 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%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were given a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.15%. This is a positive change from Southern's previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. 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.

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