Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) Receives Average Recommendation of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Analysts give Southern an average rating of Hold (19 analysts: 1 sell, 12 hold, 6 buy) with a 12‑month consensus price target of about $98.08.
• Insiders have been selling: CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 25,000 shares (~$2.42M) and EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 6,669 shares, leaving corporate insiders with just 0.16% ownership.
• Southern slightly missed EPS ($0.55 vs. $0.56 est.) but beat on revenue ($6.98B) and pays a quarterly dividend of $0.74, representing a 3.0% yield.

Shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) have been given an average rating of "Hold" by the nineteen analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twelve have assigned a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $98.0833.

SO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "underweight" rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Evercore raised shares of Southern from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $111.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Southern from $101.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Mizuho set a $104.00 price target on shares of Southern and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Southern from $108.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.67, for a total transaction of $2,416,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 103,602 shares in the company, valued at $10,015,205.34. This represents a 19.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 6,669 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.55, for a total transaction of $643,891.95. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 30,800 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,973,740. This represents a 17.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.16% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Southern

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of SO. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 108,057,413 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $9,422,606,000 after acquiring an additional 1,643,090 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 22.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 41,142,076 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $3,587,589,000 after acquiring an additional 7,593,224 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 18.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 34,459,462 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $3,004,866,000 after acquiring an additional 5,436,212 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,259,125 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $2,381,344,000 after acquiring an additional 384,860 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Southern in the 4th quarter worth $1,111,450,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company's stock.

Southern Trading Up 0.2%

NYSE SO opened at $97.05 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $94.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $92.13. The company has a market capitalization of $106.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.41. Southern has a 12 month low of $83.09 and a 12 month high of $100.83.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $6.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.41 billion. Southern had a net margin of 14.69% and a return on equity of 12.52%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Southern will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. Southern's dividend payout ratio is currently 75.32%.

Southern Company Profile

Southern Company NYSE: SO is an Atlanta-based energy holding company that provides electric and gas utility services and owns power generation assets across the United States. Founded in 1945, the company operates a portfolio of regulated electric utilities and affiliated businesses that generate, transmit and distribute electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Southern's principal regulated electric subsidiaries include Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power, which serve large portions of the southeastern United States.

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