Valley Financial Group Inc. Makes New $224,000 Investment in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Valley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 2,724 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $224,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in SO. Voleon Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Southern in the 4th quarter valued at $5,608,000. Utah Retirement Systems raised its position in shares of Southern by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 181,672 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,955,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Southern by 57.3% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 267,878 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $22,052,000 after acquiring an additional 97,619 shares during the last quarter. Lido Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Southern by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 78,139 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,432,000 after purchasing an additional 5,030 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Southern by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,805,269 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $889,490,000 after acquiring an additional 460,594 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on SO shares. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Guggenheim lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.54.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In related news, 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This represents a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,819 shares in the company, valued at $9,946,985.28. This represents a 23.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $91.46 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $89.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $87.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $100.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.81, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.39. The Southern Company has a 1-year low of $73.20 and a 1-year high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. Equities research analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.24%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.82%.

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.