Howe & Rusling Inc. Trims Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Howe & Rusling Inc. decreased its stake in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 15.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,112 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,116 shares during the period. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $503,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. YANKCOM Partnership bought a new stake in Southern during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its stake in Southern by 84.9% in the 4th quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 244.4% in the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Guggenheim cut shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $91.46.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO stock opened at $90.12 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.67. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $67.53 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45. The company has a market capitalization of $98.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.47, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $87.20 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $87.26.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $6.34 billion for 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%. Analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Southern’s payout ratio is 71.82%.

Insider Transactions at Southern

In other news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total value of $100,811.25. Following the completion of 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 trade represents a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total transaction of $2,997,532.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 106,819 shares in the company, valued at $9,946,985.28. This represents a 23.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by 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.