Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC Cuts Position in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO)

Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC decreased its position in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 5.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 90,635 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 5,433 shares during the quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $8,334,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vectors Research Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 2.7% during the first quarter. Vectors Research Management LLC now owns 26,926 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,476,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares in the last quarter. Invesco LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 423.9% during the first quarter. Invesco LLC now owns 13,559 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,247,000 after purchasing an additional 10,971 shares in the last quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 24.6% during the first quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,272 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $853,000 after purchasing an additional 1,832 shares in the last quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Southern by 1.1% during the first quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management now owns 10,032 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $922,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Investment Planning Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 6.7% during the first quarter. Investment Planning Advisors Inc. now owns 3,735 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $343,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $93.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $98.00 price objective for the company. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southern from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $102.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southern has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $92.93.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SO opened at $90.73 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. The company has a market cap of $99.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.65, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.38. Southern Company has a 52 week low of $76.96 and a 52 week high of $94.45. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $89.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $87.39.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.03. Southern had a net margin of 16.54% and a return on equity of 12.70%. The firm had revenue of $7.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.26%. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 70.64%.

Southern 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.