Southern (NYSE:SO) Earns Outperform Rating from Analysts at Raymond James

Raymond James initiated coverage on shares of Southern (NYSE:SO) in a research note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage issued an outperform rating and a $98.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp lowered shares of Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $78.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $93.00 price target on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.00.

Southern Price Performance

SO stock opened at $90.22 on Friday. 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 has a 52 week low of $76.96 and a 52 week high of $94.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $89.71 and its 200 day moving average is $87.30. The firm has a market cap of $99.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.38.

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

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.28%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is 70.64%.

Institutional Trading of Southern

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Southern during the first quarter worth approximately $29,658,000. Jacobi Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern by 2.6% during the first quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 28,452 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,616,000 after buying an additional 715 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern by 9.3% during the first quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 289,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,631,000 after buying an additional 24,564 shares during the period. SWAN Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern by 0.8% during the first quarter. SWAN Capital LLC now owns 18,525 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,703,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the period. Finally, Rollins Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern by 4.1% during the first quarter. Rollins Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,509 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,702,000 after buying an additional 725 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Southern Company 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.