Southern (SO) Scheduled to Post Earnings on Thursday

Southern (NYSE:SO) is scheduled to be releasing its earnings data before the market opens on Thursday, May 2nd. Analysts expect Southern to post earnings of $0.90 per share for the quarter. Southern has set its Q1 guidance at $0.90 EPS and its FY24 guidance at $3.95-4.05 EPS.Persons that are interested in registering for the company’s earnings conference call can do so using this link.

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

Southern Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of Southern stock opened at $73.50 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $80.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.25, a P/E/G ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 0.49. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $69.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.50. Southern has a fifty-two week low of $61.56 and a fifty-two week high of $75.80. 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 Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 17th. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.92%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is 77.14%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Southern in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. UBS Group lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $78.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Barclays upped their target price on Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Southern from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on Southern from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $74.36.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southern news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.92, for a total value of $344,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 126,528 shares in the company, valued at $8,720,309.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Southern news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.92, for a total value of $344,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 126,528 shares in the company, valued at $8,720,309.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 899 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.06, for a total value of $60,286.94. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 22,502 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,508,984.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,899 shares of company stock worth $739,587 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.