The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Shares Bought by Mayfair Advisory Group LLC

Mayfair Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 167 shares during the period. Southern comprises about 1.0% of Mayfair Advisory Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest position. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,419,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,572,665 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,444,343,000 after buying an additional 352,023 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of Southern by 53.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,444,163 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,153,065,000 after acquiring an additional 5,707,845 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Southern by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,811,307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $634,988,000 after purchasing an additional 349,122 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at $631,068,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Southern by 38.5% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,547,188 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $488,461,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096,988 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on SO shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $76.00 price objective (up previously from $72.00) on shares of Southern in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Southern from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $76.14.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SO traded down $0.47 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $77.57. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,226,973 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,873,369. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $61.56 and a fifty-two week high of $80.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.04, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.51. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $77.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.27.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $6.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.59 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.74% and a return on equity of 12.07%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.79 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th were given a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 17th. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total value of $684,815.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,117,660.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.