The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Shares Sold by Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. reduced its position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 4.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 27,390 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,360 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in Southern were worth $2,255,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern by 125.0% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 7,871 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $710,000 after purchasing an additional 4,373 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Southern by 5.4% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 108,361 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,772,000 after buying an additional 5,589 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its position in Southern by 4.9% during the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 21,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,983,000 after buying an additional 1,031 shares during the period. Truvestments Capital LLC increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 9,945 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $897,000 after acquiring an additional 703 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Southern 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 transaction of $1,250,440.00. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This represents a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on SO. Mizuho boosted their target price on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Guggenheim downgraded 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 given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $91.46.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SO opened at $87.73 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $96.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $86.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $87.23. The Southern Company has a 52 week low of $67.53 and a 52 week high of $94.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60.

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

Southern Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.28%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.