TCTC Holdings LLC Lowers Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

TCTC Holdings LLC reduced its stake in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 105,934 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 5,848 shares during the period. TCTC Holdings LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $9,553,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 100,089,634 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,180,430,000 after purchasing an additional 481,071 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its stake in Southern by 45.9% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,994,733 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,721,382,000 after buying an additional 7,550,570 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in shares of Southern by 5.7% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 2,718,040 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $245,113,000 after acquiring an additional 145,810 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Southern by 2.1% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,542,113 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $197,192,000 after acquiring an additional 51,751 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service raised its stake in shares of Southern by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 2,420,890 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $218,316,000 after acquiring an additional 279,304 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, CEO James Y. Kerr II sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.64, for a total transaction of $2,689,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 145,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,005,688.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Southern news, CEO James Y. Kerr II sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.64, for a total transaction of $2,689,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 145,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,005,688.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Bryan D. Anderson sold 6,565 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.54, for a total value of $587,830.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,467 shares in the company, valued at $3,981,575.18. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Bank of America increased their price target on Southern from $86.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Southern from $77.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Guggenheim upped their price target on Southern from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Southern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $89.27.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of SO opened at $88.64 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $89.93 and a 200-day moving average of $83.75. The Southern Company has a 52 week low of $65.80 and a 52 week high of $94.45. The firm has a market cap of $97.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.10. Southern had a net margin of 17.87% and a return on equity of 12.78%. The business had revenue of $7.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.42 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.04 EPS for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.25%. Southern’s payout ratio is currently 66.98%.

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.