Rothschild Investment LLC Has $8.10 Million Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Rothschild Investment LLC lessened its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 98,380 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 253 shares during the period. Rothschild Investment LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $8,099,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of SO. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 172.9% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 207,375 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,701,000 after purchasing an additional 131,378 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP lifted its holdings in Southern by 6.7% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 32,860 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,963,000 after buying an additional 2,074 shares during the period. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Southern in the third quarter valued at $204,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Southern by 29.7% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 101,703 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,172,000 after buying an additional 23,266 shares during the period. Finally, NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its holdings in Southern by 9.0% in the third quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 6,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $552,000 after buying an additional 505 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were 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 directly owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,138,296. This 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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Southern Trading Up 0.7 %

SO opened at $88.46 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $65.99 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $96.92 billion, a PE ratio of 22.06, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.53. The company’s 50-day moving average is $83.70 and its 200 day moving average is $86.82.

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

Southern Announces Dividend

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 paid a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.26%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.82%.

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.