Financial Partners Group LLC Has $487,000 Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Financial Partners Group LLC raised its stake in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 102.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,913 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,999 shares during the period. Financial Partners Group LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $487,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SO. Montecito Bank & Trust lifted its position in shares of Southern by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust now owns 9,380 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $772,000 after purchasing an additional 505 shares in the last quarter. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Southern in the 4th quarter valued at about $459,000. FCG Investment Co lifted its position in shares of Southern by 18.9% during the 4th quarter. FCG Investment Co now owns 32,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,634,000 after buying an additional 5,090 shares in the last quarter. Veracity Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 12.9% in the 4th quarter. Veracity Capital LLC now owns 5,151 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $424,000 after buying an additional 590 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Secure Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 9,880 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $813,000 after acquiring an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. 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, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.14.

Insider Activity at Southern

In related news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total value of $100,503.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Southern Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE SO opened at $82.23 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $90.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.52. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $65.80 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $84.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $86.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.10. Southern had a net margin of 17.87% and a return on equity of 12.78%. The business had revenue of $7.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.42 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.04 earnings per share for the current year.

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.