Southern Company (The) $SO Shares Sold by Flaharty Asset Management LLC

Flaharty Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 8.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,350 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 401 shares during the period. Flaharty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $400,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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 worth $9,582,126,000 after buying an additional 1,419,724 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position 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 worth $1,003,419,000 after buying an additional 107,394 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position 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 worth $614,297,000 after buying an additional 81,066 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Southern in the 1st quarter worth about $510,229,000. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Southern by 23.2% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,208,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $428,794,000 after purchasing an additional 979,756 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on SO. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $78.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southern from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $102.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $98.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $98.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Southern has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $94.92.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO opened at $91.25 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $93.47 and its 200-day moving average is $91.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.41. 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 Company has a 12-month low of $80.46 and a 12-month high of $96.44.

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

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th were given a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 76.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 13,158 shares of Southern stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total value of $1,250,010.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 93,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,897,795. This trade represents a 12.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.