Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners Buys New Position in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO)

Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners bought a new stake in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,785 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $348,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of SO. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern by 0.7% during the first quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 15,928 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,465,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. West Branch Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern by 23.0% during the first quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 616 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern by 1.9% during the first quarter. PFW Advisors LLC now owns 6,114 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $562,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Syverson Strege & Co lifted its position in shares of Southern by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Syverson Strege & Co now owns 4,264 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $351,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robbins Farley lifted its position in shares of Southern by 0.4% during the first quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 32,454 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $2,984,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. KeyCorp cut shares of Southern from a "sector weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and set a $78.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $93.00 price target on shares of Southern in a report on Friday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $92.93.

Southern Stock Performance

SO stock traded up $0.00 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $88.42. 5,189,660 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,578,093. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. Southern Company has a 52 week low of $76.96 and a 52 week high of $94.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $89.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $87.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.38.

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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The company 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 represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.35%. This is a positive change from Southern's previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern's dividend payout ratio is currently 70.64%.

Southern 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.