Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. Sells 500 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. trimmed its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 7.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 6,519 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 500 shares during the quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $537,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Southern during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. YANKCOM Partnership bought a new stake in Southern during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Southern during the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. WFA Asset Management Corp increased its stake in Southern by 84.9% during the fourth quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its stake in Southern by 244.4% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on SO. Guggenheim cut Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group upped their target price on Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Southern from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank upped their target price on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southern has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $91.46.

Southern Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $89.21 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $86.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $87.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.25, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The Southern Company has a 52-week low of $67.53 and a 52-week high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $6.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.90 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. Sell-side analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.23%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total transaction of $2,997,532.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,946,985.28. This represents a 23.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total value of $100,811.25. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. The trade was a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.