Abound Wealth Management Reduces Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Abound Wealth Management decreased its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 2.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 7,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 145 shares during the period. Abound Wealth Management’s holdings in Southern were worth $649,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Fortis Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 20.1% during the first quarter. Fortis Advisors LLC now owns 4,475 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $411,000 after acquiring an additional 750 shares during the last quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in Southern by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. now owns 3,712 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $341,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the period. Hengehold Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Southern by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Hengehold Capital Management LLC now owns 47,773 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,393,000 after buying an additional 1,294 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in Southern by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 13,664 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,256,000 after buying an additional 464 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in Southern by 143.5% in the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 294,827 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,109,000 after buying an additional 173,729 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Southern Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of SO stock opened at $90.22 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $89.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $87.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $99.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.50, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.38. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $76.96 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.03. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. The company had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a $0.74 dividend. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.28%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 70.64%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $78.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southern from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $102.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, Raymond James began coverage on Southern in a research report on Friday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $98.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.00.

About Southern

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.