Woodley Farra Manion Portfolio Management Inc. Buys 502 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Woodley Farra Manion Portfolio Management Inc. lifted its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 46,710 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 502 shares during the period. Woodley Farra Manion Portfolio Management Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $3,845,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern by 20.2% in the fourth quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 12,524 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,052,000 after purchasing an additional 2,107 shares during the period. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. grew its holdings in Southern by 47.9% in the 4th quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. now owns 6,795 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $559,000 after buying an additional 2,200 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Southern in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,561,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 61.5% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 92,175 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,588,000 after buying an additional 35,103 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Modera Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern by 33.3% in the fourth quarter. Modera Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,913 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $981,000 after acquiring an additional 2,974 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Mizuho boosted 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. Guggenheim downgraded Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southern has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.54.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, 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 $1,138,296. This represents a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total value of $100,503.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $89.77 on Monday. The Southern Company has a 52-week low of $65.99 and a 52-week high of $94.45. 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $84.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $86.90. The stock has a market cap of $98.46 billion, a PE ratio of 22.39, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.53.

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

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. 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 3.21%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is 71.82%.

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.