Boston Partners Has $29.31 Million Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Boston Partners boosted its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO - Free Report) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 355,997 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 10,867 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners' holdings in Southern were worth $29,306,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SO. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. YANKCOM Partnership bought a new position in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. WFA Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its position in Southern by 244.4% during the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 434 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on SO shares. Mizuho upped their price target on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Scotiabank increased their price target on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Guggenheim downgraded shares of Southern from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $91.46.

Remove Ads

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SO traded down $0.51 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $88.85. The stock had a trading volume of 3,640,983 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,310,332. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $67.53 and a twelve month high of $94.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The business's fifty day moving average is $86.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $87.24. The company has a market cap of $97.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.16, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) last released 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). The business had revenue of $6.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. As a group, research analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders 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 3.24%. Southern's payout ratio is presently 71.82%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares of the company's stock, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the company's 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 in the company, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This represents a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784. Corporate 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.