Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. Has $206,000 Stock Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lessened its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 7.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,503 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 207 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $206,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of SO. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter worth approximately $315,290,000. Synovus Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Southern by 72.4% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,077,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $277,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,293,072 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 worth $2,203,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075,768 shares during the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter worth approximately $51,605,000. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Southern by 44.8% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,504,693 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $123,866,000 after purchasing an additional 465,399 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Southern Stock Performance

NYSE:SO opened at $89.21 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $86.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $87.24. The company has a market cap 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 company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.67. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $67.53 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.01). Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. The business had revenue of $6.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.90 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $0.72 dividend. 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 payout ratio is presently 71.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southern news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total value of $1,250,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,138,296. This represents a 52.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total value of $2,997,532.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,946,985.28. The trade was a 23.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784 in the last 90 days. Corporate 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.