DRW Securities LLC Has $4.50 Million Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

DRW Securities LLC grew its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO - Free Report) by 667.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 49,927 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 43,424 shares during the quarter. DRW Securities LLC's holdings in Southern were worth $4,502,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of SO. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its position in shares of Southern by 17,272.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 14,647,000 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,320,866,000 after buying an additional 14,562,689 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Southern by 8,741.6% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,502,813 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $135,524,000 after purchasing an additional 1,485,816 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its position in Southern by 2,719.7% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 872,373 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $67,670,000 after purchasing an additional 841,435 shares during the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its position in Southern by 7,657.0% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 571,148 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $44,304,000 after purchasing an additional 563,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its position in Southern by 21.3% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 2,572,230 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $199,528,000 after purchasing an additional 452,075 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on SO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Southern from $80.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Mizuho lowered shares of Southern from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $90.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, September 16th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Southern from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $89.47.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of Southern stock traded up $0.18 during trading on Monday, hitting $87.78. 1,781,911 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,429,882. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $89.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $84.79. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $65.80 and a twelve month high of $94.45. The company has a market cap of $96.18 billion, a PE ratio of 20.37, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.52.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.10. Southern had a net margin of 17.87% and a return on equity of 12.78%. The firm had revenue of $7.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.42 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 18th. Southern's payout ratio is presently 66.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total transaction of $587,830.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 44,467 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,981,575.18. This represents a 12.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO James Y. Kerr II sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.64, for a total transaction of $2,689,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 145,088 shares of the company's stock, valued at $13,005,688.32. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.