Southern (NYSE:SO) Price Target Cut to $85.00 by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Southern (NYSE:SO) had its price target trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $88.00 to $85.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

SO has been the subject of several other reports. Guggenheim raised their price target on Southern from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group increased their price objective on Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Southern in a research report on Friday, September 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $94.00 price objective on the stock. Wolfe Research cut Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Mizuho cut Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, September 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $89.47.

Southern Price Performance

SO opened at $87.60 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $89.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $84.68. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The company has a market cap of $95.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 0.52. Southern has a 12-month low of $65.80 and a 12-month high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.10. Southern had a return on equity of 12.78% and a net margin of 17.87%. The business had revenue of $7.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.42 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Southern will post 4.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Southern’s payout ratio is 66.98%.

Insider Transactions at Southern

In related news, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total transaction of $587,830.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 44,467 shares in the company, valued at $3,981,575.18. The trade was a 12.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James Y. Kerr II sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 145,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,005,688.32. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in Southern by 1,361.6% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 3,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $229,000 after buying an additional 2,982 shares in the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Southern during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,168,000. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in Southern by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 30,938 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,219,000 after buying an additional 3,293 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in Southern during the 1st quarter valued at about $88,000. Finally, Kestra Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Southern by 17.3% during the 1st quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 278,880 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $20,007,000 after buying an additional 41,161 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.