Southern Company (The) $SO Shares Sold by Viawealth LLC

Viawealth LLC decreased its stake in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 11.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,771 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 969 shares during the period. Viawealth LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $714,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Southern by 1.6% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 105,904,243 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,725,187,000 after purchasing an additional 1,694,066 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Southern by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 26,006,919 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,377,494,000 after purchasing an additional 241,572 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Southern by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,912,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,003,419,000 after buying an additional 107,394 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Southern by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,768,667 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $621,567,000 after buying an additional 87,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Southern in the 1st quarter valued at about $510,229,000. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Southern from $78.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $99.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Barclays reduced their target price on Southern from $98.00 to $91.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Southern in a research report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $103.00 price target for the company. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Southern from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $99.03.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO opened at $89.30 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.33 billion, a PE ratio of 22.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.45. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $93.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $92.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.54. Southern Company has a 12-month low of $80.46 and a 12-month high of $100.83.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. 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 company had revenue of $7.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.39 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.27%.

Southern Company 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.