Southern (NYSE:SO) Rating Lowered to “Neutral” at The Goldman Sachs Group

Southern (NYSE:SO) was downgraded by investment analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $98.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 7.23% from the stock’s current price.

SO has been the subject of several other reports. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $99.00 price target on shares of Southern in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen cut Southern from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. Barclays set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Southern from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $99.56.

Southern Stock Up 0.5%

SO opened at $91.39 on Thursday. Southern has a 1 year low of $80.46 and a 1 year high of $100.83. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $94.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $92.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.74. The company has a market cap of $100.63 billion, a PE ratio of 23.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.09. Southern had a net margin of 15.10% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The company had revenue of $7.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.39 earnings per share. Southern’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Southern will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SO. Greenleaf Trust increased its position in Southern by 4.0% during the first quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 29,851 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,745,000 after acquiring an additional 1,147 shares during the period. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group raised its position in Southern by 8.3% in the first quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 9,874 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $908,000 after purchasing an additional 759 shares during the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Southern by 12.7% in the first quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 19,005 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,748,000 after purchasing an additional 2,147 shares during the period. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Southern by 4.0% during the first quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,678 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $338,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the period. Finally, Leavell Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Southern by 1.3% in the first quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 184,949 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $17,006,000 after purchasing an additional 2,343 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

About Southern

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.