Members Trust Co Lowers Stock Holdings in Southern Company (The) $SO

Members Trust Co lowered its holdings in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,396 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 180 shares during the quarter. Members Trust Co’s holdings in Southern were worth $955,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,210,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,582,126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,419,724 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,912,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,003,419,000 after purchasing an additional 107,394 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,680,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $614,297,000 after purchasing an additional 81,066 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern in the 1st quarter valued at about $510,229,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,046,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $280,107,000 after purchasing an additional 120,816 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of Southern in a report on Monday, October 6th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $103.00 price target for the company. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $99.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. 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 note on Friday, August 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Southern currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $98.83.

Southern Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of Southern stock opened at $96.96 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. Southern Company has a 12-month low of $80.46 and a 12-month high of $100.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $106.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.92, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 0.43. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $94.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $92.08.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.08). Southern had a net margin of 15.10% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The company had revenue of $6.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.10 EPS. The company’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. Analysts predict that Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 76.09%.

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.