First Horizon Advisors Inc. Grows Position in Southern Company (The) $SO

First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 4.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 376,734 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,389 shares during the quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $34,596,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Southern in the 1st quarter worth $510,229,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,419,724 shares in the last quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its position in shares of Southern by 125.4% in the 1st quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,349,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $124,059,000 after acquiring an additional 750,500 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 623,417 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Southern by 71.4% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,200,624 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $110,253,000 after acquiring an additional 499,996 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Southern Stock Down 0.3%

Southern stock opened at $92.84 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.74. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $94.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $92.51. The company has a market cap of $102.13 billion, a PE ratio of 23.87, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.43. Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $80.46 and a fifty-two week high of $100.83.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $7.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 15.10%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.39 EPS. Southern has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.300-4.30 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.540-0.540 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be paid a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.27%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $99.00 target price on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. BTIG Research assumed coverage on shares of Southern in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Southern in a report on Monday, October 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $97.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $99.66.

About Southern

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.