RIA Advisory Group LLC Sells 7,921 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

RIA Advisory Group LLC reduced its position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 55.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,342 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 7,921 shares during the quarter. RIA Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $445,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Southern by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,572,665 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,444,343,000 after purchasing an additional 352,023 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Southern by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 38,906,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,518,045,000 after purchasing an additional 1,838,857 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Southern by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,737,843 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $694,953,000 after purchasing an additional 163,986 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Southern by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,811,307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $634,988,000 after purchasing an additional 349,122 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Southern by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,547,188 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $488,461,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096,988 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.92, for a total transaction of $344,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 126,528 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,720,309.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.92, for a total transaction of $344,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 126,528 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,720,309.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 899 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.06, for a total value of $60,286.94. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 22,502 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,508,984.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,899 shares of company stock valued at $739,587 in the last quarter. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Southern Stock Up 2.2 %

NYSE:SO traded up $1.58 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $72.15. 6,463,611 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,662,146. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $61.56 and a twelve month high of $75.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $68.92 and a 200 day moving average of $68.99. The stock has a market cap of $78.98 billion, a PE ratio of 19.88, a PEG ratio of 4.36 and a beta of 0.49.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

SO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Southern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Southern from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Barclays upped their price target on Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 price target on shares of Southern in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, UBS Group cut Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.07.

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.