South Plains Financial Inc. Invests $936,000 in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

South Plains Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 11,374 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $936,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its position in shares of Southern by 84.9% in the 4th quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 429 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in Southern by 244.4% during the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 434 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Southern

In related news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total value of $1,250,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 13,236 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,138,296. This represents a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total value of $100,811.25. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 102,090 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This represents a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784 over the last ninety days. 0.16% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Southern Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE SO traded up $0.67 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $91.72. 1,075,076 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,448,506. The stock has a market cap of $100.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.85, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.39. The Southern Company has a one year low of $74.88 and a one year high of $94.45. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $90.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $87.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.66.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The company had revenue of $7.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.17 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.03 EPS. Southern's revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.23%. This is an increase from Southern's previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern's payout ratio is currently 73.82%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on SO. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Southern from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $94.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a report on Friday. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southern presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $93.07.

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.