Transce3nd LLC Makes New Investment in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Transce3nd LLC purchased a new stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 560 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $46,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Syverson Strege & Co raised its position in Southern by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Syverson Strege & Co now owns 4,264 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $351,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Providence Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 41,073 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,381,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 15.9% in the fourth quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC now owns 895 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the period. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Elevate Wealth Advisory Inc. now owns 6,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $510,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Missouri Trust & Investment Co boosted its holdings in Southern by 23.1% during the 4th quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 671 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on SO. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Guggenheim cut shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.54.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total value of $2,997,532.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 106,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,946,985.28. The trade was a 23.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $1,138,296. This trade represents a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Up 1.8 %

SO stock opened at $91.85 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $101.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.39. 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’s 50 day moving average price is $89.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $87.30. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $72.11 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.01). The business 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, analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.22%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.