Members Trust Co Sells 180 Shares of Southern Company (The) $SO

Members Trust Co reduced its stake in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 1.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,396 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 180 shares during the period. Members Trust Co’s holdings in Southern were worth $955,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SO. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,210,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,582,126,000 after buying an additional 1,419,724 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Southern by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,912,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,003,419,000 after buying an additional 107,394 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,680,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $614,297,000 after buying an additional 81,066 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern in the 1st quarter worth $510,229,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,046,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $280,107,000 after buying an additional 120,816 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $92.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Southern from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Barclays set a $70.00 price target on shares of Southern in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Southern from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, BTIG Research started coverage on shares of Southern in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.83.

Southern Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of SO opened at $96.96 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $106.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.92, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.54. Southern Company has a 1-year low of $80.46 and a 1-year high of $100.83. The company has a 50-day moving average of $94.12 and a 200 day moving average of $92.08.

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

Southern Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be given a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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.