Marietta Investment Partners LLC Sells 16,634 Shares of Southern Company (The) $SO

Marietta Investment Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 42.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 22,868 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 16,634 shares during the quarter. Marietta Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,994,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Triumph Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Southern in the third quarter valued at $29,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Southern in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new position in shares of Southern in the third quarter valued at $35,000. Legacy Wealth Managment LLC ID bought a new position in shares of Southern in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Kingdom Financial Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Southern in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Southern

In related news, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 6,669 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.55, for a total transaction of $643,891.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 30,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,973,740. The trade was a 17.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.67, for a total transaction of $2,416,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 103,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,015,205.34. This represents a 19.44% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Southern from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Evercore raised shares of Southern from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $111.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and set a $87.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Seaport Research Partners downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $99.38.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SO opened at $90.60 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $94.34 and a 200 day moving average of $91.82. The stock has a market cap of $102.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.34. Southern Company has a 12 month low of $83.80 and a 12 month high of $100.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.68.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.21 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.07 billion. Southern had a net margin of 14.46% and a return on equity of 12.64%. Southern’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Southern Company will post 4.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 8th. Investors of record on Monday, May 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 77.35%.

About Southern

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an Atlanta-based energy holding company that provides electric and gas utility services and owns power generation assets across the United States. Founded in 1945, the company operates a portfolio of regulated electric utilities and affiliated businesses that generate, transmit and distribute electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Southern’s principal regulated electric subsidiaries include Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power, which serve large portions of the southeastern United States.