The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Shares Acquired by Wedmont Private Capital

Wedmont Private Capital boosted its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 10.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 16,203 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,593 shares during the quarter. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,318,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA grew its position in shares of Southern by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 9,159 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,208 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Southern by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 576,435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,452,000 after buying an additional 8,148 shares during the last quarter. City State Bank raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. City State Bank now owns 7,187 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $592,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern by 153.4% in the fourth quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 26,548 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,185,000 after acquiring an additional 16,071 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aprio Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southern by 42.2% in the fourth quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,340 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $933,000 after acquiring an additional 3,364 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, September 20th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $94.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective 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. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Southern from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total transaction of $100,503.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,592,958.70. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO stock opened at $81.81 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market cap of $89.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.03, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.52. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $85.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $86.16. The Southern Company has a one year low of $65.80 and a one year high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.03 EPS for the current year.

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.