NBH Bank Makes New $777,000 Investment in Southern Company (The) $SO

NBH Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 8,114 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $777,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Marble Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,443,000. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. boosted its position in Southern by 121.4% in the 4th quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,767,773 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $154,150,000 after buying an additional 969,493 shares during the period. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp grew its stake in shares of Southern by 29.2% in the first quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 50,628 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,887,000 after acquiring an additional 11,448 shares in the last quarter. MUFG Securities EMEA plc grew its stake in shares of Southern by 114.2% in the fourth quarter. MUFG Securities EMEA plc now owns 45,112 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,934,000 after acquiring an additional 24,056 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Glenmede Trust Co. NA increased its position in shares of Southern by 19.1% during the first quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 92,289 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,908,000 after acquiring an additional 14,798 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Southern from $92.00 to $89.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 21st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Southern from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $79.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Southern from $101.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southern has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.09.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of SO opened at $87.90 on Friday. Southern Company has a 1-year low of $83.80 and a 1-year high of $100.83. The stock has a market cap of $101.12 billion, a PE ratio of 21.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $93.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $94.26.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.12. Southern had a return on equity of 12.93% and a net margin of 15.43%.The company had revenue of $6.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.79 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Southern Company will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th will be given a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is 72.90%.

Southern Company Profile

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an Atlanta-based energy holding company that provides electric and gas utility services and owns power generation assets across the United States. Founded in 1945, the company operates a portfolio of regulated electric utilities and affiliated businesses that generate, transmit and distribute electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Southern’s principal regulated electric subsidiaries include Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power, which serve large portions of the southeastern United States.