California Public Employees Retirement System Decreases Stock Holdings in Southern Company (The) $SO

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its holdings in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 17.9% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,447,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 750,307 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Southern were worth $326,676,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 106,414,323 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,084,885,000 after buying an additional 510,080 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 320.3% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 33,548,852 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,179,425,000 after acquiring an additional 25,567,431 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Southern in the second quarter worth about $1,179,715,000. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Southern by 3.5% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 8,532,530 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $808,628,000 after acquiring an additional 285,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Southern by 1.3% during the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,768,667 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $621,567,000 after acquiring an additional 87,891 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Southern from $108.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. UBS Group cut their target price on Southern from $98.00 to $94.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Southern from $104.00 to $93.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded shares of Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Southern presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.08.

Southern Stock Performance

SO stock opened at $98.06 on Friday. Southern Company has a twelve month low of $83.09 and a twelve month high of $100.83. The firm has a market cap of $107.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.95, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 0.44. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $91.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $91.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $6.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.41 billion. Southern had a net margin of 14.69% and a return on equity of 12.52%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were given a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 75.32%.

Southern Profile

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an Atlanta-based energy holding company that provides electric and gas utility services and owns power generation assets across the United States. Founded in 1945, the company operates a portfolio of regulated electric utilities and affiliated businesses that generate, transmit and distribute electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Southern’s principal regulated electric subsidiaries include Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power, which serve large portions of the southeastern United States.