Insight Inv LLC Raises Stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Insight Inv LLC grew its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 8.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,030 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 700 shares during the quarter. Insight Inv LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $743,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in SO. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,521,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,203,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075,768 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its position in Southern by 17,272.6% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 14,647,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,320,866,000 after buying an additional 14,562,689 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 0.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,405,596 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $577,657,000 after buying an additional 52,414 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 0.5% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,245,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $292,679,000 after buying an additional 15,300 shares during the period. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 72.4% in the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,077,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $277,570,000 after acquiring an additional 1,293,072 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Morgan Stanley dropped 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. Guggenheim cut shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Southern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total value of $100,503.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,393 shares of the company’s stock, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Up 1.5 %

SO stock opened at $83.50 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $91.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.52. 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 business’s 50 day moving average price is $84.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $86.39. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $65.80 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45.

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

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.