TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. Has $6.48 Million Stock Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. grew its position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO - Free Report) by 4.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 78,697 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 3,603 shares during the quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.'s holdings in Southern were worth $6,478,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SO. Syverson Strege & Co grew its position in Southern by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Syverson Strege & Co now owns 4,264 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $351,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 41,073 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $3,381,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 15.9% in the 4th quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC now owns 895 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. increased its position in shares of Southern by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. now owns 6,200 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $510,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Missouri Trust & Investment Co raised its holdings in Southern by 23.1% during the fourth quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 671 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 126 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 have weighed in on SO. Morgan Stanley restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Guggenheim lowered shares of Southern from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. The firm had revenue of $6.34 billion for 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.22%. This is a positive change from Southern's previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 71.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total transaction of $100,811.25. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at $9,148,284.90. This trade represents a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were 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. This represents a 23.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784 in the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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