Uniting Wealth Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 3,583 The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Uniting Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 3,583 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $295,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SO. Financial Enhancement Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter valued at about $326,000. Verity & Verity LLC grew its stake in Southern by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 201,971 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,626,000 after buying an additional 5,434 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 94.4% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 288,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,033,000 after buying an additional 140,151 shares during the last quarter. Farmers Trust Co. raised its position in shares of Southern by 31.6% during the 4th quarter. Farmers Trust Co. now owns 48,383 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,983,000 after buying an additional 11,605 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank grew its position in Southern by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 237,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $19,556,000 after acquiring an additional 14,824 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SO has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Mizuho boosted their target price on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Guggenheim lowered shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.46.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO stock opened at $91.42 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $100.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.80, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $87.83 and a 200 day moving average of $87.31. The Southern Company has a 52 week low of $67.53 and a 52 week high of $94.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced 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). Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The company had revenue of $6.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.15%. Southern’s payout ratio is 71.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of Southern 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 106,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,946,985.28. The trade was a 23.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This represents a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.