Drive Wealth Management LLC Buys 688 Shares of Southern Company (The) $SO

Drive Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,309 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 688 shares during the quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $488,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of SO. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Southern in the first quarter valued at about $510,229,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,210,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,582,126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,419,724 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its position in shares of Southern by 125.4% during the 1st quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,349,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,059,000 after purchasing an additional 750,500 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 40.5% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,161,929 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $198,789,000 after purchasing an additional 623,417 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 71.4% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,200,624 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $110,253,000 after buying an additional 499,996 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on SO. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Southern from $78.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Southern from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Southern from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Southern in a research note on Monday, October 6th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $103.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southern presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.83.

Southern Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of SO opened at $97.80 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $94.06 and its 200 day moving average is $92.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. Southern Company has a 12-month low of $80.46 and a 12-month high of $100.83. The company has a market capitalization of $107.59 billion, a PE ratio of 25.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.43.

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

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be given a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th. Southern’s payout ratio is 76.09%.

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.