StoneX Group Inc. Raises Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

StoneX Group Inc. raised its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 50.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 96,766 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 32,559 shares during the period. StoneX Group Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $7,966,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Southern in the 4th quarter valued at $848,019,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Southern in the fourth quarter valued at about $315,290,000. Synovus Financial Corp raised its stake in Southern by 72.4% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,077,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $277,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,293,072 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Southern by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,521,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,203,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 102,790,453 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,461,710,000 after buying an additional 698,422 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Southern

In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total value of $2,997,532.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 106,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,946,985.28. This represents a 23.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total value of $1,250,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,138,296. The trade was a 52.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Southern Trading Up 0.9 %

SO opened at $91.99 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $87.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $87.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The Southern Company has a 12 month low of $67.53 and a 12 month high of $94.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $100.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.94, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.01). Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. The firm had revenue of $6.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.90 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.13%. Southern’s payout ratio is currently 71.82%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on SO. Mizuho upped their price objective on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Guggenheim cut Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $91.46.

Southern Profile

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.