Second Half Financial Partners LLC Invests $345,000 in Southern Company (The) $SO

Second Half Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 3,761 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $345,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SO. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Southern in the 1st quarter worth $510,229,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,210,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,582,126,000 after acquiring an additional 1,419,724 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 125.4% in the first quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,349,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,059,000 after purchasing an additional 750,500 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 40.5% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,161,929 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $198,789,000 after purchasing an additional 623,417 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 71.4% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,200,624 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $110,253,000 after purchasing an additional 499,996 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Performance

NYSE:SO opened at $98.23 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $93.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $91.73. Southern Company has a twelve month low of $80.46 and a twelve month high of $98.36. The company has a market capitalization of $108.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.43.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.08). Southern had a net margin of 15.10% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The business had revenue of $6.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.10 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Southern has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.500 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th were issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 18th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Southern’s payout ratio is 76.09%.

Insider Activity at Southern

In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 13,158 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 93,661 shares in the company, valued at $8,897,795. The trade was a 12.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $92.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Southern from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of Southern in a research note on Monday, October 6th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $103.00 price objective for the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $96.31.

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.