Southern (NYSE:SO) Stock Price Expected to Rise, UBS Group Analyst Says

Southern (NYSE:SO) had its target price upped by stock analysts at UBS Group from $94.00 to $97.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. UBS Group’s price objective points to a potential upside of 8.57% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also commented on SO. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank increased their price target on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Guggenheim downgraded Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $91.46.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO stock traded down $0.63 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $89.34. The stock had a trading volume of 1,949,884 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,279,200. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.66. Southern has a twelve month low of $67.53 and a twelve month high of $94.45. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $86.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $87.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.99 billion, a PE ratio of 22.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.90 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Southern will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Southern

In other news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,138,296. The trade was a 52.35 % 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, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total value of $100,811.25. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at $9,148,284.90. The trade was a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Syverson Strege & Co raised its position in Southern by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Syverson Strege & Co now owns 4,264 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $351,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the period. Abel Hall LLC raised its position in Southern by 1.8% during the third quarter. Abel Hall LLC now owns 6,830 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $616,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the period. Providence Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Southern by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 41,073 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,381,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the period. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC grew its stake in Southern by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC now owns 32,508 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,676,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC grew its stake in Southern by 4.3% in the third quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 3,011 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $272,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.