2,388 Shares in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Purchased by Oak Family Advisors LLC

Oak Family Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 2,388 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $220,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Southern by 56.6% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,547 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $292,000 after acquiring an additional 1,282 shares during the period. Values First Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 83.7% during the fourth quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 6,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $547,000 after purchasing an additional 3,029 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Southern by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 398,624 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,815,000 after purchasing an additional 15,923 shares during the period. Sovran Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern in the 4th quarter worth approximately $305,000. Finally, M&T Bank Corp boosted its position in Southern by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 164,768 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $13,564,000 after purchasing an additional 1,785 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on SO. Jefferies Financial Group raised Southern from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $102.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $92.64.

Southern Stock Performance

SO opened at $88.51 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $89.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $87.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The company has a market capitalization of $97.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.38. The Southern Company has a 1-year low of $76.96 and a 1-year high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.20 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $7.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.17 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. The company’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.03 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS 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 $0.74 dividend. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.34%. Southern’s payout ratio is 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.