First County Bank CT Trims Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

First County Bank CT lowered its holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 13.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 16,381 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,518 shares during the period. First County Bank CT’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,348,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in SO. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Southern by 168.1% in the third quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. West Branch Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 34.7% during the 3rd quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 501 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the third quarter valued at about $49,000. Quarry LP bought a new position in Southern in the third quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Southern in the third quarter worth about $54,000. 64.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on SO. Guggenheim upped their target price on Southern from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Mizuho lowered Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, September 16th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Scotiabank boosted 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, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Southern currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total value of $100,503.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Southern Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Southern stock traded up $0.24 on Tuesday, reaching $81.20. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,531,445 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,770,246. The company has a market capitalization of $88.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The Southern Company has a 52 week low of $65.80 and a 52 week high of $94.45. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $86.03.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $7.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.14 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.78% and a net margin of 17.87%. Southern’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.42 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Monday, November 18th were issued a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.55%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.98%.

Southern 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.