May Hill Capital LLC Acquires 118 Shares of Southern Company (The) $SO

May Hill Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,255 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 118 shares during the period. May Hill Capital LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $299,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 1.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,210,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,582,126,000 after buying an additional 1,419,724 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 1.0% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,912,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,003,419,000 after buying an additional 107,394 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 1.2% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,680,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $614,297,000 after buying an additional 81,066 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Southern in the first quarter worth approximately $510,229,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 4.1% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,046,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $280,107,000 after buying an additional 120,816 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Southern from $78.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. BTIG Research began coverage on shares of Southern in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Southern in a research report on Monday. They set an “overweight” rating and a $97.00 price objective on the stock. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Cowen began coverage on shares of Southern in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $99.66.

Southern Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of SO stock opened at $95.62 on Tuesday. Southern Company has a 12 month low of $80.46 and a 12 month high of $100.83. The stock has a market cap of $105.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.58, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.43. 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $94.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $92.36.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period in the prior year, the company posted $1.10 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. Southern has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.500 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 17th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 76.09%.

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.