Southern Company (The) $SO Stock Position Trimmed by iA Global Asset Management Inc.

iA Global Asset Management Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 7.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 211,178 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 16,724 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $20,013,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in SO. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Southern by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 105,904,243 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,725,187,000 after buying an additional 1,694,066 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position 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 worth $2,377,494,000 after acquiring an additional 241,572 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Southern in the second quarter worth $1,179,715,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.3% during the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,768,667 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $621,567,000 after purchasing an additional 87,891 shares during the period. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Southern by 9,099.6% during 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on SO shares. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Southern from $98.00 to $94.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a report on Wednesday. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Southern from $97.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $102.50 target price (up from $99.50) on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their price target on Southern from $87.00 to $76.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $94.56.

Southern Stock Down 1.9%

SO stock opened at $87.46 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $96.30 billion, a PE ratio of 21.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.46. Southern Company has a 12 month low of $82.05 and a 12 month high of $100.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $87.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $91.78.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.09. Southern had a return on equity of 12.52% and a net margin of 15.42%.The company had revenue of $7.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.39 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Company 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.