Southern (NYSE:SO) Price Target Lowered to $77.00 at Scotiabank

Southern (NYSE:SO - Free Report) had its target price lowered by Scotiabank from $80.00 to $77.00 in a report released on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a sector outperform rating on the utilities provider's stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on SO. Barclays increased their price objective on Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $76.00 target price (up from $72.00) on shares of Southern in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Southern from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 16th. UBS Group cut Southern from a buy rating to a neutral rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on Southern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $74.00.

Southern Stock Performance

SO stock traded up $0.84 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $72.99. 5,387,552 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,672,979. Southern has a twelve month low of $61.56 and a twelve month high of $75.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $69.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $79.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.49.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The utilities provider reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. Southern had a return on equity of 11.40% and a net margin of 15.79%. The company had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.26 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Southern will post 4 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This is a positive change from Southern's previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.95%. Southern's dividend payout ratio is currently 77.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 899 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.06, for a total value of $60,286.94. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,502 shares in the company, valued at $1,508,984.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 899 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.06, for a total value of $60,286.94. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,502 shares in the company, valued at $1,508,984.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.94, for a total value of $334,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 129,552 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,672,210.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,899 shares of company stock worth $739,587 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Southern

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,572,665 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $6,444,343,000 after purchasing an additional 352,023 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 38,906,760 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,518,045,000 after purchasing an additional 1,838,857 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 53.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,444,163 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,153,065,000 after purchasing an additional 5,707,845 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,737,843 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $694,953,000 after purchasing an additional 163,986 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,811,307 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $634,988,000 after purchasing an additional 349,122 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company's stock.

Southern Company 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.