Hilltop National Bank Purchases Shares of 28,833 Southern Company (The) $SO

Hilltop National Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 28,833 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,648,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Investment Planning Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Southern by 34.2% during the 2nd quarter. Investment Planning Advisors Inc. now owns 5,011 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $460,000 after buying an additional 1,276 shares in the last quarter. Triad Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 16.7% in the 2nd quarter. Triad Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,904 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $909,000 after purchasing an additional 1,419 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 12.4% in the 2nd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 167,698 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,400,000 after purchasing an additional 18,448 shares during the last quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 67.0% in the 2nd quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank now owns 930 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 373 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Naples Global Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 75,092 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,896,000 after purchasing an additional 1,120 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Southern from $94.00 to $92.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Barclays raised their price objective on Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Wall Street Zen lowered Southern from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on Southern in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $98.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on Southern from $98.00 to $99.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $95.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 13,158 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $1,250,010.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 93,661 shares in the company, valued at $8,897,795. This trade represents a 12.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of SO stock opened at $93.84 on Friday. Southern Company has a 52-week low of $80.46 and a 52-week high of $96.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $103.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.43. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $93.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $91.43.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.08). Southern had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 15.10%.The business had revenue of $6.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.10 earnings per share. Southern’s revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. Southern has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.500 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 18th were issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 76.09%.

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.