Stephens Inc. AR Purchases 342 Shares of Southern Company (The) $SO

Stephens Inc. AR lifted its position in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 117,189 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 342 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Southern were worth $10,761,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Equitable Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of Southern by 24.7% during the second quarter. Equitable Trust Co. now owns 34,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,171,000 after purchasing an additional 6,843 shares in the last quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Southern during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,352,000. Investors Research Corp boosted its position in shares of Southern by 1,982.6% during the second quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 5,623 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $516,000 after purchasing an additional 5,353 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Southern by 35.8% during the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 116,059 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,672,000 after buying an additional 30,618 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank raised its stake in Southern by 6.8% during the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 268,648 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,670,000 after buying an additional 17,111 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Southern from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Barclays set a $70.00 price objective on Southern in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Southern from $94.00 to $92.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $102.50 price objective (up previously from $99.50) on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday. Finally, Cowen initiated coverage on Southern in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $98.83.

Southern Stock Up 0.0%

SO stock opened at $97.80 on Tuesday. Southern Company has a 1-year low of $80.46 and a 1-year high of $100.83. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $94.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $92.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $107.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.14, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.43.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly 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 return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 15.10%.The business had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.10 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Southern has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.500 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Investors of record on Monday, November 17th will be given a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th. Southern’s dividend 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.