Mayfair Advisory Group LLC Sells 1,082 Shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO)

Mayfair Advisory Group LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 5.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 20,050 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,082 shares during the period. Southern accounts for approximately 1.1% of Mayfair Advisory Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest position. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,844,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on SO. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southern from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $102.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $78.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.00.

Southern Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of SO opened at $88.41 on Wednesday. Southern Company has a one year low of $76.96 and a one year high of $94.45. The company has a market cap of $97.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $89.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $87.30.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.17 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.54% and a return on equity of 12.70%. The company’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.03 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders 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 3.35%. This is a boost from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern’s payout ratio is presently 70.64%.

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.