The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Shares Purchased by Graham Capital Management L.P.

Graham Capital Management L.P. lifted its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 133.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 182,761 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 104,450 shares during the quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in Southern were worth $15,045,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Syverson Strege & Co boosted its stake in Southern by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Syverson Strege & Co now owns 4,264 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $351,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Providence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 41,073 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,381,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC boosted its position in Southern by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC now owns 32,508 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,676,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares during the period. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC grew its stake in Southern by 15.9% during the 4th quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC now owns 895 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. increased its position in Southern by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. now owns 6,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $510,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on SO. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays lifted their price target on Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their target price on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Southern presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.07.

Southern Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of SO stock opened at $90.37 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $90.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $87.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $99.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.54, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.40. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $76.64 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The company had revenue of $7.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.03 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.28%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 70.64%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $1,250,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 13,236 shares in the company, valued at $1,138,296. The trade was a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total transaction of $100,811.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares of the company’s stock, 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 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784 in the last three months. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Southern 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.