CapWealth Advisors LLC Sells 1,515 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

CapWealth Advisors LLC lowered its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 8.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 16,270 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,515 shares during the quarter. CapWealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,141,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Prudential PLC increased its stake in Southern by 23.4% in the first quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 19,438 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,409,000 after acquiring an additional 3,689 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its stake in Southern by 33.5% in the first quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,727 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $126,000 after acquiring an additional 433 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in Southern by 63.0% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,902 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $138,000 after acquiring an additional 735 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in Southern by 0.4% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 49,925 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,621,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in Southern by 35.8% in the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 907,132 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $65,776,000 after acquiring an additional 239,325 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.94, for a total transaction of $334,700.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 129,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,672,210.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.94, for a total transaction of $334,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 129,552 shares in the company, valued at $8,672,210.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 899 shares of Southern stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.06, for a total transaction of $60,286.94. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 22,502 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,508,984.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 10,899 shares of company stock valued at $739,587. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho increased their target price on Southern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. UBS Group lowered shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $76.00 price target (up from $72.00) on shares of Southern in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Southern in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $74.07.

Southern Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE SO traded up $0.06 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $69.86. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,414,014 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,594,314. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market cap of $76.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.23, a P/E/G ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.49. The Southern Company has a 12 month low of $61.56 and a 12 month high of $75.80. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $68.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $68.98.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The utilities provider reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.90 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 11.40% and a net margin of 15.79%. The business’s revenue was down 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.26 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.