Smith Thornton Advisors LLC Buys 132 Shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO)

Smith Thornton Advisors LLC raised its stake in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 0.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 17,892 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 132 shares during the period. Smith Thornton Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,645,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SO. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern by 23.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 21,253 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,954,000 after buying an additional 4,005 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern by 56.6% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,547 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 1,282 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Southern by 4.1% during the first quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $427,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Southern by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 398,624 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,815,000 after buying an additional 15,923 shares during the period. Finally, New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern by 16,464.2% during the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 31,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,632,000 after buying an additional 31,776 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $93.00 target price on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group upped their price target on Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on Southern in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $98.00 price target on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp cut Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $78.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southern currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.93.

Southern Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE SO opened at $92.60 on Friday. Southern Company has a 12 month low of $79.30 and a 12 month high of $94.45. The stock has a market cap of $101.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.38. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $89.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $88.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.17 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.70% and a net margin of 16.54%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. 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 3.20%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio 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.