The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Position Lifted by Zions Bancorporation N.A.

Zions Bancorporation N.A. raised its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 12.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 56,344 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,187 shares during the period. Zions Bancorporation N.A.’s holdings in Southern were worth $4,638,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of SO. Financial Enhancement Group LLC bought a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at about $326,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Southern by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 108,361 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,772,000 after acquiring an additional 5,589 shares in the last quarter. Verity & Verity LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 201,971 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,626,000 after acquiring an additional 5,434 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Southern by 94.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 288,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,033,000 after acquiring an additional 140,151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Farmers Trust Co. lifted its stake in Southern by 31.6% during the fourth quarter. Farmers Trust Co. now owns 48,383 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,983,000 after purchasing an additional 11,605 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SO has been the subject of several recent research 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 research note on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Southern from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Scotiabank increased their price target on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $91.46.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares in the company, valued at $1,138,296. The trade was a 52.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total transaction of $100,811.25. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This represents a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $88.85 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $86.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $87.23. The stock has a market cap of $97.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. 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 Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $67.53 and a fifty-two week 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 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 company had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.90 billion. Equities analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.24%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.