Southern Company (The) (SO) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.74 on December 8th

Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, October 20th. Investors of record on Monday, November 17th will be given a dividend of 0.74 per share by the utilities provider on Monday, December 8th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th.

Southern has a payout ratio of 64.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Southern to earn $4.59 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 64.5%.

Southern Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of SO stock opened at $96.96 on Wednesday. Southern has a 52-week low of $80.46 and a 52-week high of $100.83. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $94.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $92.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.74. The company 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.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $6.70 billion. Southern had a net margin of 15.10% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The business’s revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.10 earnings per share. Southern has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.500 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Southern will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on SO. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $102.50 price target (up from $99.50) on shares of Southern in a report on Friday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $92.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Barclays set a $70.00 target price on shares of Southern in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Southern from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.83.

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.