Outfitter Financial LLC Acquires New Shares in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO)

Outfitter Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 2,465 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $227,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Investors Research Corp boosted its position in Southern by 400.0% during the first 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 last quarter. Rossby Financial LCC acquired a new position in Southern during the first quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp acquired a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Elequin Capital LP boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Curat Global LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Southern in the first quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on SO. UBS Group raised their price objective on Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Southern from $91.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Barclays boosted their target price on Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southern from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $102.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. One 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.20.

Southern Stock Up 1.3%

NYSE:SO traded up $1.17 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $94.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 595,471 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,719,011. The company has a market capitalization of $103.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 0.38. Southern Company has a 12 month low of $80.46 and a 12 month high of $94.62. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $89.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $88.43.

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 net margin of 16.54% and a return on equity of 12.70%. The firm had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.03 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a $0.74 dividend. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.13%. Southern’s 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.