Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC Has $5.02 Million Stock Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC decreased its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 8.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 54,616 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 4,820 shares during the quarter. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $5,022,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of SO. Norges Bank bought a new position in Southern in the 4th quarter worth $848,019,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Southern in the 4th quarter worth $315,290,000. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in Southern by 325.7% in the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 4,322,931 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $355,864,000 after acquiring an additional 3,307,527 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Southern by 11,230.1% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,954,213 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $179,690,000 after acquiring an additional 1,936,965 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Southern by 562.9% in the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,368,788 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $112,679,000 after acquiring an additional 1,162,288 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their target price 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. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southern presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.00.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of Southern stock opened at $90.22 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.67. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $89.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.30. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $76.96 and a twelve month high of $94.45. The firm has a market cap of $99.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.38.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its earnings results 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. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The business had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.17 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.28%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 70.64%.

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.