Financial Advocates Investment Management Decreases Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Financial Advocates Investment Management lowered its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 8.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 9,487 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 867 shares during the period. Financial Advocates Investment Management’s holdings in Southern were worth $781,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Southern by 5.6% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 178,379 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,086,000 after buying an additional 9,481 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital grew its position in shares of Southern by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 14,610 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,299,000 after acquiring an additional 2,002 shares during the period. Patten Group Inc. raised its holdings in Southern by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter. Patten Group Inc. now owns 6,928 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $625,000 after purchasing an additional 631 shares during the period. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Southern by 6.8% during the third quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,460 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $312,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tobam grew its holdings in Southern by 25.7% during the third quarter. Tobam now owns 4,940 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $445,000 after purchasing an additional 1,011 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Southern

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total value of $100,503.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered 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. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank upped their price target on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $89.79.

Southern Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of SO opened at $84.53 on Friday. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $65.80 and a twelve month high of $94.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $83.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $86.63. The company has a market cap of $92.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.53.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.41%. Southern’s payout ratio is 66.98%.

Southern Company 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.