The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Increases Dividend to $0.74 Per Share

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 21st, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a dividend of 0.74 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, June 6th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.28%. This is a 2.8% increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72.

Southern has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.0% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 24 consecutive years. Southern has a payout ratio of 63.0% 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 $2.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 62.7%.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO stock opened at $90.21 on Tuesday. Southern has a one year low of $71.66 and a one year high of $94.45. The company has a market cap of $99.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.39. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $89.38 and a 200-day moving average 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.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Southern will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on SO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Guggenheim lowered shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $92.00.

Insider Transactions at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total value of $2,997,532.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,819 shares in the company, valued at $9,946,985.28. This represents a 23.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,138,296. The trade was a 52.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784 in the last three months. Corporate 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.