The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Shares Acquired by Marshall Financial Group LLC

Marshall Financial Group LLC boosted its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 2.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,672 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 862 shares during the quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $2,820,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of SO. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Southern in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $848,019,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Southern in the fourth quarter worth $315,290,000. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in Southern by 325.7% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 4,322,931 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $355,864,000 after purchasing an additional 3,307,527 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 11,230.1% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,954,213 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $179,690,000 after purchasing an additional 1,936,965 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern by 562.9% in the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,368,788 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $112,679,000 after buying an additional 1,162,288 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays lifted their target price on Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. KeyCorp cut Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $78.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating and set a $93.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.00.

Southern Trading Up 0.8%

NYSE:SO opened at $90.25 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $99.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.38. 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 1 year low of $76.96 and a 1 year high of $94.45. The business has a fifty day moving average of $89.65 and a 200-day moving average of $87.32.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $7.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.17 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.03 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.28%. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 70.64%.

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.