Barclays Increases Southern (NYSE:SO) Price Target to $66.00

Southern (NYSE:SO) had its price objective upped by equities research analysts at Barclays from $65.00 to $66.00 in a research report issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective suggests a potential downside of 2.60% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $76.00 price objective (up from $72.00) on shares of Southern in a research note on Monday, April 1st. UBS Group downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Southern from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Southern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.07.

Southern Price Performance

SO opened at $67.76 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62. Southern has a 12 month low of $61.56 and a 12 month high of $75.80. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $68.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $68.97. The stock has a market cap of $74.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.67, a P/E/G ratio of 4.29 and a beta of 0.49.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The utilities provider reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.90 billion. Southern had a net margin of 15.79% and a return on equity of 11.40%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.26 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Southern will post 4 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 899 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.06, for a total transaction of $60,286.94. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,502 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,508,984.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 899 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.06, for a total transaction of $60,286.94. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,502 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,508,984.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.94, for a total transaction of $334,700.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 129,552 shares in the company, valued at $8,672,210.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,899 shares of company stock worth $739,587 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $631,068,000. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Southern by 53.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,444,163 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,153,065,000 after acquiring an additional 5,707,845 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $369,131,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Southern by 38.5% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,547,188 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $488,461,000 after acquiring an additional 2,096,988 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Imprint Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 5,840.2% during the second quarter. Imprint Wealth LLC now owns 1,949,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $194,939,000 after buying an additional 1,916,575 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.