Sage Mountain Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in Southern Company (The) $SO

Sage Mountain Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 25.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 11,475 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,336 shares during the quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,054,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 1.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,210,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,582,126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,419,724 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Southern by 1.0% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,912,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,003,419,000 after purchasing an additional 107,394 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 1.2% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,680,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $614,297,000 after purchasing an additional 81,066 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern in the first quarter worth about $510,229,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 4.1% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,046,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $280,107,000 after purchasing an additional 120,816 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Southern from $78.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $99.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Southern from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Barclays set a $70.00 price objective on Southern in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $99.30.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $95.86 on Friday. Southern Company has a twelve month low of $80.46 and a twelve month high of $100.83. The firm has a market cap of $105.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.64, a PEG ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a 50 day moving average of $94.25 and a 200 day moving average of $92.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 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. As a group, research analysts expect that Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. Southern’s payout ratio is currently 76.09%.

Southern 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.