IHT Wealth Management LLC Grows Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

IHT Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO – Get Rating) by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 19,133 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,868 shares during the period. IHT Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,301,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mutual Advisors LLC raised its position in Southern by 20.8% in the 2nd quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 21,902 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,562,000 after purchasing an additional 3,764 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Southern by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 684,928 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $46,575,000 after purchasing an additional 65,826 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in Southern by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 13,547 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $920,000 after purchasing an additional 337 shares during the last quarter. Colony Group LLC raised its position in Southern by 20.0% during the 2nd quarter. Colony Group LLC now owns 19,368 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,381,000 after buying an additional 3,225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Republic Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Southern by 856.1% during the 2nd quarter. First Republic Investment Management Inc. now owns 795,659 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $56,738,000 after buying an additional 712,443 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on SO. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $68.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 16th. Credit Suisse Group upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 18th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Southern from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $76.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, December 12th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Southern from $79.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.93.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 14,546 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.95, for a total transaction of $1,032,038.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 120,786 shares in the company, valued at $8,569,766.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 14,546 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.95, for a total transaction of $1,032,038.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 120,786 shares in the company, valued at $8,569,766.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 1,282 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.60, for a total transaction of $85,381.20. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 27,512 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,832,299.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 16,680 shares of company stock worth $1,174,768. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Southern Stock Performance

NYSE:SO opened at $68.12 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $66.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $68.73. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $58.85 and a twelve month high of $80.57. The company has a market capitalization of $74.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.50 and a beta of 0.49.

Southern (NYSE:SO – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.02. Southern had a net margin of 12.40% and a return on equity of 11.73%. The firm had revenue of $7.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.83 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 3.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.99%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 82.93%.

Southern Company Profile

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The Southern Co is a holding company, which engages in the generation and sale of electricity. It operates through the following segments: Traditional Electric Operating Companies, Southern Power and Southern Company Gas. The Traditional Electric Operating Companies segment refers to vertically integrated utilities that own generation, transmission and distribution facilities, and supplies electric services in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi.