Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC Cuts Stake in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO)

Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC lessened its position in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 2.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 92,134 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,899 shares during the period. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $8,472,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Southern by 0.7% during the first quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 15,928 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,465,000 after buying an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management now owns 10,032 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $922,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. West Branch Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 23.0% during the 1st quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 616 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. PFW Advisors LLC now owns 6,114 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $562,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Finally, McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 8,565 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $788,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southern from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $102.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $78.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Southern from $91.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.53.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO opened at $95.03 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $104.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.68, a PEG ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 0.38. The business’s 50 day moving average is $91.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $89.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. Southern Company has a 52-week low of $80.46 and a 52-week high of $96.44.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.17 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.54% and a return on equity of 12.70%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.03 EPS. Analysts forecast that Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 18th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.11%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 70.64%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 13,158 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $1,250,010.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 93,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,897,795. This represents a 12.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

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.