CENTRAL TRUST Co Sells 427 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

CENTRAL TRUST Co lessened its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 0.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 82,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 427 shares during the quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in Southern were worth $7,623,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Southern by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 15,928 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,465,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. West Branch Capital LLC raised its holdings in Southern by 23.0% in the 1st quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 616 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC boosted its position in Southern by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. PFW Advisors LLC now owns 6,114 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $562,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the period. Syverson Strege & Co grew its holdings in Southern by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Syverson Strege & Co now owns 4,264 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $351,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robbins Farley lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 0.4% during the first quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 32,454 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,984,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on SO. Morgan Stanley reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. KeyCorp downgraded Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $78.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $93.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.00.

Southern Trading Down 1.6%

NYSE SO opened at $88.88 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.17, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.38. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $89.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $87.30. The Southern Company has a 12 month low of $76.96 and a 12 month high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The company had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.17 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were given a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.33%. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.64%.

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.