Evanson Asset Management LLC Invests $256,000 in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO)

Evanson Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 2,779 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $256,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Investors Research Corp raised its position in shares of Southern by 400.0% during the 1st quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 270 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp bought a new stake in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. Elequin Capital LP raised its position in shares of Southern by 60.6% during the fourth quarter. Elequin Capital LP now owns 498 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Southern Trading Up 0.5%

SO stock opened at $89.09 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $89.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $87.33. Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $76.96 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.86. The firm has a market cap of $97.92 billion, a PE ratio of 21.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.38.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $7.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.17 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.54% and a return on equity of 12.70%. Southern’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.32%. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern’s payout ratio is presently 70.64%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $93.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $92.93.

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.