Southern (NYSE:SO) Price Target Increased to $73.00 by Analysts at Bank of America

Southern (NYSE:SO) had its price objective hoisted by Bank of America from $70.00 to $73.00 in a report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a neutral rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Barclays boosted their price objective on Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. BMO Capital Markets restated an outperform rating and set a $76.00 price objective (up previously from $72.00) on shares of Southern in a report on Monday, April 1st. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Southern from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Southern from a buy rating to a neutral rating and dropped their price target for the company from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $74.36.

Southern Trading Up 0.6 %

Southern stock opened at $74.37 on Tuesday. Southern has a 52 week low of $61.56 and a 52 week high of $75.80. 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 capitalization of $81.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.49, a PEG ratio of 4.63 and a beta of 0.49. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $69.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.31.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The utilities provider reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. Southern had a return on equity of 11.40% and a net margin of 15.79%. The company had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.26 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Southern will post 3.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th will be given a dividend of $0.72 per share. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.87%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 17th. Southern’s payout ratio is currently 77.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of the business’s 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 899 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,502 shares in the company, valued at $1,508,984.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 129,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,672,210.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,899 shares of company stock worth $739,587 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SO. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter worth $631,068,000. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of Southern by 53.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,444,163 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,153,065,000 after purchasing an additional 5,707,845 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 38.5% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,547,188 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $488,461,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096,988 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 5.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 38,906,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,518,045,000 after purchasing an additional 1,838,857 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern in the first quarter worth $128,413,000. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.