Morgan Stanley Cuts Southern (NYSE:SO) Price Target to $90.00

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) had its price objective cut by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $91.00 to $90.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an "equal weight" rating on the utilities provider's stock. Morgan Stanley's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 1.64% from the stock's current price.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on SO. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. KeyCorp lowered shares of Southern from a "sector weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and set a $78.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Barclays upped their price objective on Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Southern from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $94.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $92.93.

Southern Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:SO traded up $0.13 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $88.55. 2,328,013 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,562,715. The firm has a market cap of $97.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.12, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.38. Southern has a 52-week low of $76.96 and a 52-week high of $94.45. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $89.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $87.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.86.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southern

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in SO. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Southern by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,210,177 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $9,582,126,000 after acquiring an additional 1,419,724 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Southern by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,050,209 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,056,441,000 after acquiring an additional 528,870 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Southern by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,912,663 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,003,419,000 after acquiring an additional 107,394 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at $848,019,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,680,776 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $614,297,000 after purchasing an additional 81,066 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company's stock.

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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