The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) CEO Sells $684,815.04 in Stock

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total transaction of $684,815.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,117,660.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Southern Stock Up 0.7 %

SO stock opened at $75.85 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $83.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.90, a PEG ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62. The Southern Company has a 12 month low of $61.56 and a 12 month high of $75.98. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $70.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $69.58.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $6.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.59 billion. Southern had a net margin of 15.79% and a return on equity of 11.40%. Southern’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.79 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 3.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 17th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.80%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 79.34%.

Institutional Trading of Southern

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Buck Wealth Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 1,132.8% in the 1st quarter. Buck Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 98,627 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,075,000 after buying an additional 90,627 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 46,341 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,324,000 after buying an additional 793 shares during the period. Avidian Wealth Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Avidian Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 6,231 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $447,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the period. RIA Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 77.4% in the 1st quarter. RIA Advisory Group LLC now owns 11,250 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $807,000 after buying an additional 4,908 shares during the period. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 35.2% in the 1st quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,344 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $96,000 after buying an additional 350 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on SO. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Southern has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.71.

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.