Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Trims Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD reduced its stake in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO - Free Report) by 11.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 15,876,440 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 2,147,937 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned 1.45% of Southern worth $1,306,950,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Southern during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its holdings in Southern by 84.9% in the 4th quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 429 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its position in Southern by 244.4% in the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 434 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Barclays boosted their target price on Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Guggenheim lowered Southern from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $92.54.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $1,250,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,138,296. This represents a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of Southern stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,148,284.90. This trade represents a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784. 0.16% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Southern Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of SO stock traded up $0.34 on Monday, reaching $90.77. 2,331,860 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,470,756. The business's 50 day moving average price is $89.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $87.34. The company has a market capitalization of $99.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.64, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.39. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $73.20 and a twelve month high of $94.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.90 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be paid a $0.74 dividend. This is an increase from Southern's previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.26%. Southern's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.82%.

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.