Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC Has $1.90 Million Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 24,473 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 722 shares during the quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,898,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Southern by 6,303.7% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,199,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $84,112,000 after acquiring an additional 1,180,812 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in Southern by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 23,904 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,676,000 after buying an additional 704 shares during the last quarter. Tritonpoint Wealth LLC bought a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $454,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in shares of Southern by 12.2% during the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 157,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,033,000 after buying an additional 17,120 shares during the period. Finally, Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC now owns 10,691 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $750,000 after acquiring an additional 310 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SO. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $77.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Southern from $77.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Argus increased their price target on Southern from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Southern from $87.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $80.33.

Southern Price Performance

NYSE SO traded up $0.84 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $87.29. The company had a trading volume of 5,016,223 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,527,416. The company has a market capitalization of $95.45 billion, a PE ratio of 22.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.51. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $61.56 and a twelve month high of $89.68. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $80.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $74.32.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $6.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.10 billion. Southern had a net margin of 17.67% and a return on equity of 12.95%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.79 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 19th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.30%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.42%.

Insider Activity at Southern

In related news, EVP Sloane N. Drake sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total value of $931,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,301,597.31. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Sloane N. Drake sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total transaction of $931,320.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,771 shares in the company, valued at $1,301,597.31. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Anthony L. Wilson sold 6,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total transaction of $535,509.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 85,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,620,831.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,280 shares of company stock valued at $1,678,625 over the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Southern

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.