Brokerages Set Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) PT at $99.56

Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $99.5588.

SO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Southern from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays set a $70.00 price target on shares of Southern in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Southern in a report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $103.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Cowen initiated coverage on Southern in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company.

Southern Stock Down 0.6%

NYSE:SO opened at $90.65 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. Southern has a 12-month low of $80.46 and a 12-month high of $100.83. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $94.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $92.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $99.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.09. Southern had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 15.10%.The business had revenue of $7.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.39 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Southern will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Investors of record on Monday, November 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 17th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.27%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SO. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Southern by 320.3% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,548,852 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,179,425,000 after acquiring an additional 25,567,431 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Southern in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,179,715,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Southern in the 1st quarter valued at about $510,229,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 9,099.6% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,421,331 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $406,011,000 after purchasing an additional 4,373,271 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its position in shares of Southern by 83.8% during the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 4,097,422 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $376,266,000 after buying an additional 1,867,912 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

About Southern

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.