Southern (NYSE:SO) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.49 per share on Wednesday, March 6th. This represents a $1.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.56%.

A number of research firms have also recently commented on SO. Analysts at Zacks reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Southern in a research note to investors on Monday. They now have a $45.00 price target on the stock. On a related note, analysts at BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Southern in a research note to investors on Wednesday, January 2nd. They now have a $45.00 price target on the stock. Finally, analysts at TheStreet reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Southern in a research note to investors on Friday, December 28th.

Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, one has issued an underweight rating, and two have assigned a sell rating to the company. Southern presently has a consensus rating of “hold” and an average price target of $45.92.

Southern (SO) traded up 0.58% on Friday, hitting $43.25. Southern (SO) has a 1-year low of $41.75 and a 1-year high of $48.59. The stock’s 50-day moving average is currently $43.29. The company has a market cap of $37.805 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.02.

Southern last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 5th. The company reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $5.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.97 billion. During the same quarter in 2012, the company posted $1.07 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Southern (SO) will post $2.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Southern Company (Southern Company) is a holding company, which owns Alabama Power Company (Alabama Power), Georgia Power Company (Georgia Power), Gulf Power Company (Gulf Power), and Mississippi Power Company (Mississippi Power), each of which is an operating public utility company.

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