Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Buys 702 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 203,518 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 702 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $16,754,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 223,020 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,359,000 after purchasing an additional 9,035 shares during the period. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 94,033 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,741,000 after purchasing an additional 2,111 shares during the last quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 15.3% during the fourth quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC now owns 30,209 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,487,000 after purchasing an additional 4,015 shares during the period. Schaper Benz & Wise Investment Counsel Inc. WI grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Schaper Benz & Wise Investment Counsel Inc. WI now owns 63,906 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,261,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in Southern by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,780,137 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $230,807,000 after buying an additional 284,022 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. One research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southern presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $90.54.

Southern Trading Up 1.5 %

NYSE SO opened at $92.75 on Tuesday. The Southern Company has a 52 week low of $67.53 and a 52 week high of $94.45. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $85.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $87.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The firm has a market cap of $101.73 billion, a PE ratio of 23.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46.

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 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.90 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.11%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. Southern’s payout ratio is currently 71.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total transaction of $100,811.25. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 102,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. The trade was a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total value of $1,250,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares in the company, 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. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.