OneAscent Financial Services LLC Purchases Shares of 6,390 The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

OneAscent Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 6,390 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $576,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Whalen Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Southern in the 3rd quarter valued at about $231,000. Caprock Group LLC increased its position in shares of Southern by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 25,601 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,309,000 after purchasing an additional 1,215 shares during the last quarter. Aviance Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Southern by 10.8% during the 3rd quarter. Aviance Capital Partners LLC now owns 8,292 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $748,000 after purchasing an additional 805 shares during the last quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Southern during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,726,000. Finally, Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Southern by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,086,175 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $97,951,000 after purchasing an additional 139,712 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on SO shares. UBS Group increased their price objective on Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Mizuho lowered Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, September 16th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Wolfe Research lowered Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Southern from $77.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $89.27.

Insider Activity

In other Southern news, CEO James Y. Kerr II sold 30,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.64, for a total transaction of $2,689,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 145,088 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,005,688.32. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total value of $587,830.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,467 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,981,575.18. The trade was a 12.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Southern Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE SO opened at $88.05 on Tuesday. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $65.80 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $84.46. The stock has a market cap of $96.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.52.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $7.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.14 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.78% and a net margin of 17.87%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.42 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Southern’s payout ratio is presently 66.98%.

Southern 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.