Summit Financial LLC Has $4.75 Million Stock Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Summit Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 12.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 57,668 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,483 shares during the quarter. Summit Financial LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $4,747,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Southern during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake in shares of Southern by 84.9% in the 4th quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in Southern by 244.4% in the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on SO shares. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Scotiabank boosted 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. Guggenheim lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a report on Thursday, March 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.46.

Southern Stock Up 0.9 %

SO opened at $91.99 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $87.51 and a 200-day moving average of $87.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The Southern Company has a 1-year low of $67.53 and a 1-year 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). The company had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.13%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is 71.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total transaction of $2,997,532.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,946,985.28. The trade was a 23.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,138,296. This trade represents a 52.35 % 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 valued at $4,348,784 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern 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.