Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Southern Call Options (NYSE:SO)

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Investors purchased 8,380 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 78% compared to the typical daily volume of 4,700 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total value of $684,815.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,117,660.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total value of $684,815.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,117,660.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Sloane N. Drake sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total value of $931,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,301,597.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 28,026 shares of company stock worth $2,151,644. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southern

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Southern by 74.3% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 119,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,392,000 after purchasing an additional 51,025 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Southern by 11.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 26,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,887,000 after purchasing an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 12,081 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $847,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the period. Courier Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Courier Capital LLC now owns 35,091 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,461,000 after buying an additional 984 shares during the period. Finally, Successful Portfolios LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Successful Portfolios LLC now owns 9,492 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $666,000 after buying an additional 610 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of Southern stock traded up $0.51 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $82.17. The company had a trading volume of 4,010,104 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,083,865. Southern has a one year low of $61.56 and a one year high of $83.46. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $79.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $73.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market cap of $89.85 billion, a PE ratio of 21.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.51.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $6.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.59 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.07% and a net margin of 16.74%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.79 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Southern will post 4.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.50%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 19th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is 74.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Bank of America increased their price target on Southern from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Scotiabank decreased their price target on Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Barclays increased their price target on Southern from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Argus increased their price target on Southern from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on Southern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $76.50.

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.