Alliancebernstein L.P. Has $89.99 Million Stock Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Alliancebernstein L.P. lowered its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO - Free Report) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,093,204 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 14,060 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned approximately 0.10% of Southern worth $89,993,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SO. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 102,790,453 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $8,461,710,000 after buying an additional 698,422 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,521,339 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $2,203,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075,768 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Southern in the 4th quarter valued at about $848,019,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Southern by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,599,710 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $543,288,000 after purchasing an additional 194,114 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $315,290,000. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total value of $1,250,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares in the company, valued at $1,138,296. This represents a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of Southern stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total value of $100,811.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This represents a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on SO. Morgan Stanley restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Southern from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $94.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southern has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $92.00.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO traded up $1.02 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $88.24. 1,305,839 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,154,609. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The firm has a market cap of $96.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.39. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $88.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.30. The Southern Company has a 52 week low of $67.53 and a 52 week high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.01). Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The company had revenue of $6.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.26%. Southern's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.82%.

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.