The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Holdings Reduced by Widmann Financial Services Inc.

Widmann Financial Services Inc. reduced its holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 12,003 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 415 shares during the quarter. Widmann Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,082,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Acropolis Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 25.1% in the third quarter. Acropolis Investment Management LLC now owns 1,747 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $158,000 after acquiring an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. L.M. Kohn & Company increased its position in shares of Southern by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. L.M. Kohn & Company now owns 17,686 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,595,000 after purchasing an additional 1,480 shares during the period. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Southern in the third quarter valued at $551,000. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in Southern by 1.4% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 286,666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,852,000 after buying an additional 3,820 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its holdings in Southern by 0.6% during the third quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 170,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,303,000 after acquiring an additional 988 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

SO has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $80.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Mizuho lowered Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Southern from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $89.47.

Southern Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of SO stock opened at $89.15 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.52. The Southern Company has a 1 year low of $65.80 and a 1 year high of $94.45. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $89.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $7.27 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.42 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.03 EPS for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be given a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.23%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 66.98%.

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.