Brokerages Set The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) PT at $92.64

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $93.00.

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. KeyCorp cut Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $78.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd.

Southern Stock Performance

SO opened at $90.22 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $99.16 billion, a PE ratio of 22.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.38. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $89.71 and a 200-day moving average of $87.30. Southern has a 52-week low of $76.96 and a 52-week high of $94.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $7.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.17 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. The firm’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.03 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Southern will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a $0.74 dividend. This is a boost from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.28%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 70.64%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southern

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of SO. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern by 56.6% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,547 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 1,282 shares during the period. Values First Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Southern by 83.7% in the 4th quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 6,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $547,000 after purchasing an additional 3,029 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Southern by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 398,624 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,815,000 after purchasing an additional 15,923 shares during the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Southern in the 4th quarter worth $305,000. Finally, M&T Bank Corp boosted its position in shares of Southern by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 164,768 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,564,000 after purchasing an additional 1,785 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.