First Horizon Advisors Inc. Has $26.51 Million Stock Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 2.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 322,067 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,395 shares during the quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $26,513,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its holdings in Southern by 17,272.6% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 14,647,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,320,866,000 after purchasing an additional 14,562,689 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Southern by 8,741.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,502,813 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $135,524,000 after purchasing an additional 1,485,816 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp grew its holdings in Southern by 72.4% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,077,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $277,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,293,072 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Southern by 4.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,521,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,203,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075,768 shares during the period. Finally, Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH bought a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $51,605,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Mizuho lifted their price target on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Guggenheim cut Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Southern has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.54.

Southern Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of SO stock opened at $88.46 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The stock has a market cap of $96.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.53. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $86.82. The Southern Company has a 1 year low of $65.99 and a 1 year high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. On average, research analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.26%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total transaction of $100,503.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at $7,592,958.70. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $1,250,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,138,296. This trade represents a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.