Southern Company (The) $SO Shares Purchased by Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc.

Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 2.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 329 shares during the period. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,274,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SO. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Southern in the first quarter worth approximately $510,229,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,210,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,582,126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,419,724 shares during the last quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 125.4% during 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 last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 40.5% during 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 last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 71.4% during 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Southern Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $94.20 on Friday. Southern Company has a one year low of $80.46 and a one year high of $100.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $103.62 billion, a PE ratio of 24.21, a PEG ratio of 3.31 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $94.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $92.47.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.60 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.09. Southern had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 15.10%.The firm had revenue of $7.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.39 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Southern has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.300-4.30 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.540-0.540 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Southern from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised Southern to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Southern from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Mizuho upped their target price on Southern from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Southern in a report on Monday. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $97.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $99.66.

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.