Southern - SO Stock Forecast, Price & News

The Southern Company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. It operates through Gas Distribution Operations, Gas Pipeline Investments, Wholesale Gas Services, and Gas Marketing Services segments. 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, wholesale gas services, and gas pipeline investments operations. In addition, it owns and/or operates 30 hydroelectric generating stations, 24 fossil fuel generating stations, three nuclear generating stations, 13 combined cycle/cogeneration stations, 45 solar facilities, 15 wind facilities, one fuel cell facility, and four battery storage facility; and constructs, operates, and maintains 76,289 miles of natural gas pipelines and 14 storage facilities with total capacity of 157 Bcf to provide natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The company serves approximately 8.7 million electric and gas utility customers. Further, the company offers digital wireless communications and fiber optics services. The Southern Company was incorporated in 1945 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Southern Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:SO opened at $78.37 on Tuesday. Southern has a 1 year low of $60.99 and a 1 year high of $78.82. The stock has a market cap of $83.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.41 and a beta of 0.50. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $72.48 and a 200 day moving average of $71.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The utilities provider reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $7.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.31 billion. Southern had a net margin of 12.13% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 38.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Southern will post 3.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 15th will be issued a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 12th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.47%. Southern's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 95.77%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on SO. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Southern from $76.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 21st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Southern from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 19th. UBS Group raised shares of Southern from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the company from $76.00 to $87.00 in a report on Thursday, August 4th. Seaport Res Ptn reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Southern in a report on Thursday, June 30th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Southern from $82.00 to $79.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $75.70.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southern news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 14,500 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.08, for a total value of $1,045,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,284 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,309,670.72. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 14,500 shares of Southern stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.08, for a total value of $1,045,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,284 shares in the company, valued at $8,309,670.72. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP James Y. Kerr II sold 25,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.00, for a total transaction of $1,900,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 136,987 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,411,012. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 54,000 shares of company stock valued at $4,002,500. Insiders own 0.37% of the company's stock.