West Family Investments Inc. Takes Position in Southern Company (The) $SO

West Family Investments Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 10,508 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,006,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Evergreen Advisors LLC bought a new position in Southern during the first quarter valued at $25,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Ankerstar Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Cornerstone Financial Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on SO shares. Truist Financial cut their price target on Southern from $100.00 to $97.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. KeyCorp cut Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $79.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $99.00 target price on shares of Southern in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $104.00 target price on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Southern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.09.

Southern Price Performance

Southern stock opened at $92.22 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $106.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.12, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.34. Southern Company has a one year low of $83.80 and a one year high of $100.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $94.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $94.42.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $6.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.23 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.93% and a net margin of 15.43%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.79 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Southern Company will post 4.58 EPS for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. Southern’s payout ratio is presently 72.90%.

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.