TD Cowen Upgrades Southern (NYSE:SO) to Strong-Buy

Southern (NYSE:SO) was upgraded by equities researchers at TD Cowen to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Southern from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Southern from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Southern from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $98.57.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of Southern stock opened at $98.44 on Wednesday. Southern has a one year low of $80.46 and a one year high of $100.84. The stock has a market cap of $108.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.31, a P/E/G ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.43. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $93.94 and its 200 day moving average is $91.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.74.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $6.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.70 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 15.10%.Southern’s revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.10 EPS. Southern has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.500 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Southern will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 13,158 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total value of $1,250,010.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 93,661 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,897,795. This represents a 12.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.16% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Southern

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Columbus Macro LLC increased its stake in Southern by 0.6% during the third quarter. Columbus Macro LLC now owns 22,367 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,120,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. Hengehold Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Southern by 1.7% during the third quarter. Hengehold Capital Management LLC now owns 48,854 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,630,000 after acquiring an additional 812 shares during the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel increased its position in shares of Southern by 1.4% during the third quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 207,350 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $19,651,000 after acquiring an additional 2,783 shares during the last quarter. Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC increased its holdings in Southern by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC now owns 4,866 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $461,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its holdings in Southern by 11.5% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 9,698 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $919,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

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.