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 Stock Performance

NYSE:SO opened at $78.25 on Wednesday. Southern has a 1 year low of $60.99 and a 1 year high of $78.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market cap of $83.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.55, a PEG ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $72.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $71.37.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $7.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.31 billion. Southern had a net margin of 12.13% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 38.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Southern will post 3.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 6th. Investors of record on Monday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 12th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.48%. Southern's payout ratio is currently 95.77%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on SO shares. UBS Group upgraded shares of Southern from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $76.00 to $87.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 4th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $76.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 21st. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Southern from $81.00 to $70.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 22nd. Credit Suisse Group started coverage on shares of Southern in a research note on Monday, April 25th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $77.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $75.70.

Insider Activity at Southern

In related news, EVP James Y. Kerr II sold 25,000 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 136,987 shares in the company, valued at $10,411,012. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Southern news, EVP James Y. Kerr II sold 25,000 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 136,987 shares in the company, valued at $10,411,012. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 14,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.92, for a total transaction of $1,057,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,406,509.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 54,000 shares of company stock worth $4,002,500. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.