Legal & General Group Plc Acquires New Position in Southern Company (The) $SO

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 7,703,017 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $737,256,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 17.5% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 34,003 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,127,000 after buying an additional 5,067 shares during the period. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. grew its holdings in Southern by 0.7% during the second quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 59,217 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,438,000 after acquiring an additional 393 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new position in Southern in the second quarter worth $655,000. Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in Southern by 11.5% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 449,960 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $41,320,000 after acquiring an additional 46,504 shares during the period. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its holdings in Southern by 2.7% in the second quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 514,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,268,000 after acquiring an additional 13,392 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Southern from $92.00 to $89.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp cut shares of Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $79.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Southern from $100.00 to $97.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.09.

Southern Price Performance

SO stock opened at $90.10 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $94.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $94.44. The firm has a market cap of $103.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.61, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.79. Southern Company has a 1 year low of $83.80 and a 1 year high of $100.83.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.12. Southern had a return on equity of 12.93% and a net margin of 15.43%.The company had revenue of $6.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.79 earnings per share. Southern’s revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Southern Company will post 4.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 17th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 72.90%.

About Southern

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an Atlanta-based energy holding company that provides electric and gas utility services and owns power generation assets across the United States. Founded in 1945, the company operates a portfolio of regulated electric utilities and affiliated businesses that generate, transmit and distribute electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Southern’s principal regulated electric subsidiaries include Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power, which serve large portions of the southeastern United States.