City Holding Co. Grows Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

City Holding Co. grew its position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 3.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 71,836 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,408 shares during the quarter. Southern accounts for approximately 0.9% of City Holding Co.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. City Holding Co.’s holdings in Southern were worth $6,605,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Investors Research Corp raised its holdings in Southern by 400.0% during the 1st quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 270 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern in the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp bought a new stake in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new stake in Southern during the 4th quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Elequin Capital LP boosted its stake in Southern by 60.6% in the 4th quarter. Elequin Capital LP now owns 498 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SO has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price target on Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. KeyCorp lowered shares of Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $78.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southern from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $102.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $93.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Southern presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.64.

Southern Price Performance

SO opened at $88.26 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.01, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.38. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $89.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $87.28. The Southern Company has a 12-month low of $76.96 and a 12-month high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The firm had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.17 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.03 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were given a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.35%. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 70.64%.

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.