Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Has $1.98 Million Stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 4.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 21,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,031 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,983,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Southern by 1,361.6% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 3,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $229,000 after acquiring an additional 2,982 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Southern by 422.2% in the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 40,501 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,906,000 after purchasing an additional 32,745 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.4% in the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 78,636 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,641,000 after purchasing an additional 3,343 shares in the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. acquired a new stake in Southern in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $278,000. Finally, Adalta Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Southern by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Adalta Capital Management LLC now owns 27,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,001,000 after acquiring an additional 635 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Southern

In other Southern news, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total value of $587,830.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,467 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,981,575.18. This represents a 12.86 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO James Y. Kerr II sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.64, for a total value of $2,689,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 145,088 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,005,688.32. This trade represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Southern Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $88.41 on Tuesday. The Southern Company has a 52 week low of $65.80 and a 52 week high of $94.45. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $89.70 and its 200 day moving average is $84.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $96.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.56, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.52.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $7.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.14 billion. Southern had a net margin of 17.87% and a return on equity of 12.78%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.42 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.26%. Southern’s payout ratio is 66.98%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on SO. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Southern from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $89.47.

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.