Sabal Trust CO Makes New $15.79 Million Investment in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Sabal Trust CO bought a new position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 225,182 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $15,790,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Prudential PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 23.4% during the 1st quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 19,438 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,409,000 after acquiring an additional 3,689 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 33.5% during the 1st quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,727 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $126,000 after acquiring an additional 433 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 63.0% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,902 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $138,000 after acquiring an additional 735 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 49,925 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,621,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 35.8% during the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 907,132 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $65,776,000 after acquiring an additional 239,325 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, December 8th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $82.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Southern from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $76.00 price objective (up previously from $72.00) on shares of Southern in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.14.

Southern Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE:SO traded down $0.14 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $69.91. The company had a trading volume of 5,248,166 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,884,880. The firm has a market cap of $76.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.25, a P/E/G ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.49. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $68.91. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $61.56 and a twelve month high of $75.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The utilities provider reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.90 billion. Southern had a net margin of 15.79% and a return on equity of 11.40%. The business’s revenue was down 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.26 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 20th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.01%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 16th. Southern’s payout ratio is currently 77.14%.

Insider Activity at Southern

In related news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.92, for a total transaction of $344,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 126,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,720,309.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Southern news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.92, for a total value of $344,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 126,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,720,309.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider David P. Poroch sold 10,099 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.96, for a total transaction of $706,526.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 28,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,007,222.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 25,998 shares of company stock valued at $1,806,063 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.28% 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.