Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC Trims Stock Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC reduced its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 86,590 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 913 shares during the quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $7,128,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Financial Enhancement Group LLC purchased a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $326,000. Verity & Verity LLC lifted its position in Southern by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 201,971 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,626,000 after buying an additional 5,434 shares during the period. Farmers Trust Co. lifted its position in Southern by 31.6% during the fourth quarter. Farmers Trust Co. now owns 48,383 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,983,000 after buying an additional 11,605 shares during the period. Czech National Bank lifted its position in Southern by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 237,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $19,556,000 after buying an additional 14,824 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in Southern by 60.7% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 23,813 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,147,000 after buying an additional 8,996 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on SO. UBS Group increased their target price on Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Mizuho raised their price objective on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Guggenheim downgraded Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $92.54.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO opened at $90.77 on Tuesday. The Southern Company has a one year low of $73.20 and a one year high of $94.45. The company has a 50-day moving average of $89.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $87.35. The stock has a market cap of $99.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.64, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.39. 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 announced 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). The firm had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.90 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. On average, equities research analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued a $0.74 dividend. This is a boost from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.26%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 73.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total transaction of $100,811.25. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at $9,148,284.90. This represents a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total transaction of $2,997,532.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 106,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,946,985.28. This trade represents a 23.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Southern Company 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.