VSM Wealth Advisory LLC Invests $292,000 in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,547 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $292,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Financial Enhancement Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern in the 4th quarter worth about $326,000. OneAscent Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern in the 3rd quarter worth about $576,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Southern by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 108,361 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,772,000 after purchasing an additional 5,589 shares during the last quarter. Verity & Verity LLC grew its position in shares of Southern by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 201,971 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,626,000 after buying an additional 5,434 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Southern by 94.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 288,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,033,000 after buying an additional 140,151 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Southern

In related news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,819 shares of the company’s stock, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,138,296. This represents a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:SO opened at $90.22 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $86.26 and a 200-day moving average of $87.21. The firm has a market cap of $98.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $67.53 and a twelve month high of $94.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly 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). The company 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%. As a group, analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.82%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on SO. 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 research report on Thursday, December 12th. Mizuho boosted their price objective 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 lowered their price objective 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. Finally, Guggenheim downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Southern has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.54.

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.