Barclays Boosts Southern (NYSE:SO) Price Target to $71.00

Southern (NYSE:SO) had its price objective hoisted by Barclays from $66.00 to $71.00 in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on SO. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Southern from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 24th. Mizuho boosted their price objective 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. UBS Group downgraded shares of Southern from a buy rating to a neutral rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Southern from $72.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $76.00 price target (up previously from $72.00) on shares of Southern in a research report on Monday, April 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $76.50.

Southern Stock Performance

NYSE:SO opened at $79.86 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $78.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $72.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The company has a market cap of $87.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.51. Southern has a twelve month low of $61.56 and a twelve month high of $80.84.

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

Southern Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th were paid a $0.72 dividend. This is a boost from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 17th. Southern’s payout ratio is currently 74.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total transaction of $684,815.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,117,660.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total transaction of $684,815.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,504 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,117,660.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Sloane N. Drake sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total transaction of $931,320.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,771 shares in the company, valued at $1,301,597.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 28,026 shares of company stock valued at $2,151,644. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southern

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. OLD National Bancorp IN boosted its position in shares of Southern by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 14,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,141,000 after buying an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. CCM Investment Advisers LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. CCM Investment Advisers LLC now owns 139,054 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,786,000 after buying an additional 1,047 shares in the last quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 29,929 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,322,000 after buying an additional 1,679 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional boosted its position in shares of Southern by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 6,355 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $493,000 after buying an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southern in the 2nd quarter worth about $3,475,000. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.