Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC Makes New $49,000 Investment in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 541 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $49,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vista Capital Partners Inc. raised its position in shares of Southern by 1.4% during the second quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. now owns 8,743 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $678,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. raised its position in shares of Southern by 3.8% during the third quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 3,246 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $293,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Southern by 5.8% during the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $198,000 after buying an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Southern by 4.5% during the third quarter. Birchcreek Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,836 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $256,000 after buying an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Southern by 4.3% during the third quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 3,011 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $272,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on SO. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target 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. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Southern from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Mizuho cut shares of Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, September 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $89.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In related news, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,467 shares in the company, valued at $3,981,575.18. This represents a 12.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James Y. Kerr II sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $13,005,688.32. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of SO stock opened at $85.84 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $89.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $85.27. The Southern Company has a 1 year low of $65.80 and a 1 year high of $94.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.96, a PEG ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $7.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.14 billion. Southern had a net margin of 17.87% and a return on equity of 12.78%. Southern’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.42 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 18th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.36%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.98%.

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.