Acropolis Investment Management LLC Acquires 222 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Acropolis Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 14.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,769 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 222 shares during the quarter. Acropolis Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $163,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern by 56.6% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,547 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 1,282 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Southern by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 398,624 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,815,000 after purchasing an additional 15,923 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 164,768 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,564,000 after buying an additional 1,785 shares in the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 16,464.2% in the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 31,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,632,000 after buying an additional 31,776 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 129.9% in the fourth quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 18,042 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,485,000 after buying an additional 10,194 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $93.00 target price on shares of Southern in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southern from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $102.00 to $100.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $78.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.00.

Southern Price Performance

Southern stock opened at $88.88 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $97.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.17, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.38. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $89.75 and its 200 day moving average is $87.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The Southern Company has a 52-week low of $76.96 and a 52-week high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The business had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.17 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.03 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.33%. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern’s dividend payout ratio 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.