Stifel Financial Corp Has $81.30 Million Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Stifel Financial Corp lifted its holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO - Free Report) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 987,659 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 24,393 shares during the quarter. Stifel Financial Corp owned about 0.09% of Southern worth $81,304,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of SO. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. YANKCOM Partnership bought a new stake in Southern in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Southern during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake in shares of Southern by 84.9% during the 4th quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 429 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Southern by 244.4% in the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 434 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on SO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Southern from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $94.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Guggenheim downgraded Southern from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Barclays upped their price objective on Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $92.54.

Southern Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of SO stock opened at $91.85 on Wednesday. The Southern Company has a 12-month low of $72.11 and a 12-month high of $94.45. The company has a market capitalization of $101.05 billion, a PE ratio of 22.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.39. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $89.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $87.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.90 billion. As a group, analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 a boost from Southern's previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.22%. Southern's payout ratio is 71.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total value of $2,997,532.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,819 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,946,985.28. The trade was a 23.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This trade represents a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Southern Company 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.

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