Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc Trims Stock Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc cut its position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 16.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 129,537 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 26,328 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc’s holdings in Southern were worth $10,750,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Turning Point Benefit Group Inc. purchased a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $337,000. Wealth Management Nebraska purchased a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $291,000. Bell Bank raised its stake in Southern by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. Bell Bank now owns 121,812 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,028,000 after purchasing an additional 13,113 shares during the period. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT raised its stake in Southern by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 10,053 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $828,000 after purchasing an additional 763 shares during the period. Finally, Cordatus Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Southern by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Cordatus Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,152 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $506,000 after purchasing an additional 262 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on SO. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Guggenheim cut shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.54.

Southern Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of SO stock opened at $88.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $96.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $83.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $86.82. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $65.99 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.90 billion. Equities research analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.26%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $1,250,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 13,236 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,138,296. The trade was a 52.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total transaction of $100,503.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 88,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.