409 Shares in Southern Company (The) $SO Acquired by IMG Wealth Management Inc.

IMG Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 409 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $38,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Southern by 1.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,210,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,582,126,000 after acquiring an additional 1,419,724 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Southern by 1.0% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,912,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,003,419,000 after acquiring an additional 107,394 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Southern by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,680,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $614,297,000 after buying an additional 81,066 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southern during the 1st quarter worth approximately $510,229,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in shares of Southern by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,046,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $280,107,000 after buying an additional 120,816 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Up 0.0%

SO stock opened at $97.80 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $94.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $92.05. Southern Company has a 12 month low of $80.46 and a 12 month high of $100.83. The company has a market cap of $107.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.54.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.08). Southern had a net margin of 15.10% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The business had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.10 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Southern has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.500 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be paid a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 17th. Southern’s payout ratio is currently 76.09%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on SO. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Southern in a research report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $103.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Southern from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Southern presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.83.

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.