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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Southern from $81.00 to $70.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 22nd. Seaport Res Ptn restated a "buy" rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Thursday, June 30th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Southern from $82.00 to $79.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 18th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Southern from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 19th. Finally, Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Southern from $76.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 21st. Two research 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $75.70.

Southern Stock Performance

NYSE:SO opened at $77.19 on Tuesday. The company's 50-day moving average price is $72.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $71.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55. The company has a market cap of $82.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.18, a P/E/G ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 0.50. Southern has a twelve month low of $60.99 and a twelve month high of $78.78.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The utilities provider reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $7.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.31 billion. Southern had a net margin of 12.13% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 38.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.84 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Southern will post 3.61 earnings per share 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 paid a dividend of $0.68 per share. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.52%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 12th. Southern's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 95.77%.

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 transaction of $1,045,160.00. Following 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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 transaction 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 SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP James Y. Kerr II sold 25,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.00, for a total transaction of $1,900,000.00. Following 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. Insiders have sold 54,000 shares of company stock valued at $4,002,500 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company's stock.