Mirador Capital Partners LP Purchases 163 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Mirador Capital Partners LP boosted its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 3.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 5,684 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 163 shares during the period. Mirador Capital Partners LP’s holdings in Southern were worth $468,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Southern by 168.1% during the 3rd quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. West Branch Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 34.7% in the 3rd quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 501 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new position in Southern in the 3rd quarter valued at about $49,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Southern during the 3rd quarter valued at about $49,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Southern in the third quarter worth approximately $54,000. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on SO. Guggenheim increased their price target on Southern from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.14.

Southern Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Southern stock opened at $82.47 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $90.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.52. The Southern Company has a 52-week low of $65.80 and a 52-week high of $94.45. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $84.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $86.19.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 17.87% and a return on equity of 12.78%. The company had revenue of $7.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.14 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.42 EPS. Southern’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.04 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total transaction of $100,503.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.18% 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.