Earnest Partners LLC Decreases Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Earnest Partners LLC decreased its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,762 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 358 shares during the quarter. Earnest Partners LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,462,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of Southern in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its position in Southern by 84.9% during the fourth quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its position in Southern by 244.4% during the fourth 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 acquired a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southern news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 approximately $1,138,296. This represents a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total value of $100,811.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at $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 a total of 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO stock opened at $90.77 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The business has a 50 day moving average of $89.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $87.35. The Southern Company has a 52 week low of $73.20 and a 52 week high of $94.45. The company has a market cap of $99.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.64, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.39.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.90 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. As a group, 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. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 3.26%. This is a boost from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern’s payout ratio is 73.82%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.54.

Southern Company 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.