Southern (NYSE:SO) PT Raised to $80.00

Southern (NYSE:SO) had its target price raised by investment analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $78.00 to $80.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, FlyOnTheWall reports. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price points to a potential upside of 20.54% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Southern from $79.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Friday, July 7th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Southern from $77.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 16th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Southern from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 8th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Southern in a research report on Saturday, August 19th. They set a “sell” rating for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.44.

Southern Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:SO traded up $0.07 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $66.37. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 880,456 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,035,389. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $69.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $69.86. The company has a market capitalization of $72.38 billion, a PE ratio of 23.45, a P/E/G ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.83. Southern has a fifty-two week low of $58.85 and a fifty-two week high of $80.32.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $5.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.47 billion. Southern had a net margin of 11.17% and a return on equity of 9.86%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.07 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Southern will post 3.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 5,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.30, for a total value of $341,500.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,512 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,569.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Southern news, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 5,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.30, for a total value of $341,500.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,512 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,569.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 20,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Friday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.62, for a total transaction of $1,452,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 98,659 shares in the company, valued at $7,164,616.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 90,000 shares of company stock worth $6,390,700. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SO. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Bell Investment Advisors Inc increased its stake in shares of Southern by 127.6% during the fourth quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc now owns 421 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares during the period. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. MRP Capital Investments LLC acquired a new position in Southern during the first quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Sanctuary Wealth Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in Southern during the second quarter worth about $34,000. 62.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Southern Company Profile

The Southern Company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. It operates through three segments: Gas Distribution Operations, Gas Pipeline Investments, and Gas Marketing Services. 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.