Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. Increases Position in Southern Company (The) $SO

Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. increased its position in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 42.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 215,850 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 63,930 shares during the quarter. Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Southern were worth $19,822,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,210,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,582,126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,419,724 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Southern by 1.0% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,912,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,003,419,000 after purchasing an additional 107,394 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Southern by 1.2% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,680,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $614,297,000 after purchasing an additional 81,066 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Southern in the first quarter valued at $510,229,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in Southern by 4.1% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,046,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $280,107,000 after purchasing an additional 120,816 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Southern Stock Up 1.7%

SO opened at $95.11 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $94.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $92.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.74. Southern Company has a 1 year low of $80.46 and a 1 year high of $100.83. The company has a market cap of $104.63 billion, a PE ratio of 24.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.43.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.09. Southern had a net margin of 15.10% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The firm had revenue of $7.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.39 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. Southern has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.300-4.30 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.540-0.540 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Investors of record on Monday, November 17th will be given a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 17th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is 76.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays set a $70.00 target price on Southern in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $99.00 target price on shares of Southern in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Southern in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $112.00 price objective for the company. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $78.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $99.66.

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.