Marietta Investment Partners LLC Invests $332,000 in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Marietta Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,028 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $332,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SO. Intellus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at about $239,000. Forefront Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at about $240,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at about $112,000. Mindset Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Southern by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Mindset Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,313 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $355,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the period. Finally, 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Southern by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 11,251 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $926,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Southern Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $89.21 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $86.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $87.26. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $67.53 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.25, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.66.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The firm had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. On average, analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Southern’s payout ratio is presently 71.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total transaction of $100,811.25. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,148,284.90. This represents a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on SO. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Guggenheim cut shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. One 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.com, Southern currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.46.

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.