The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the fifteen ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have issued a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $90.14.

SO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank boosted their target price 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. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Southern from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th.

Southern Stock Performance

Southern stock opened at $83.92 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $84.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $86.25. The company has a market capitalization of $91.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.52. Southern has a 12-month low of $65.80 and a 12-month high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.10. Southern had a return on equity of 12.78% and a net margin of 17.87%. The business had revenue of $7.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Southern will post 4.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total transaction of $100,503.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,592,958.70. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Southern

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Financial Enhancement Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter valued at about $326,000. OneAscent Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern during the 3rd quarter worth about $576,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 108,361 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,772,000 after acquiring an additional 5,589 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 94.4% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 288,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,033,000 after acquiring an additional 140,151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its stake in shares of Southern by 0.5% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,245,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $292,679,000 after acquiring an additional 15,300 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

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.