7,703,017 Shares in Southern Company (The) $SO Bought by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 7,703,017 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $737,256,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.67% of Southern at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of SO. Uptick Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Uptick Partners LLC now owns 7,601 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $734,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Southern by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 4,923 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $475,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Southern by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC now owns 34,328 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,313,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Stokes Family Office LLC lifted its stake in Southern by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Stokes Family Office LLC now owns 15,994 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,395,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Leonteq Securities AG lifted its stake in Southern by 4.7% during the first quarter. Leonteq Securities AG now owns 2,657 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $256,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on SO. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $101.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Southern from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $99.00 target price on shares of Southern in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Southern from $100.00 to $97.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.09.

Southern Trading Up 1.3%

SO opened at $90.10 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62. Southern Company has a 52 week low of $83.80 and a 52 week high of $100.83. The business’s 50 day moving average is $94.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $94.44. The firm has a market cap of $103.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.34.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $6.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.23 billion. Southern had a net margin of 15.43% and a return on equity of 12.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.79 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Southern Company will post 4.58 EPS for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 17th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is 72.90%.

Southern Profile

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an Atlanta-based energy holding company that provides electric and gas utility services and owns power generation assets across the United States. Founded in 1945, the company operates a portfolio of regulated electric utilities and affiliated businesses that generate, transmit and distribute electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Southern’s principal regulated electric subsidiaries include Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power, which serve large portions of the southeastern United States.