VSM Wealth Advisory LLC Takes $292,000 Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

VSM Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 3,547 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $292,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Southern by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,521,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,203,386,000 after buying an additional 1,075,768 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Southern by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,599,710 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $543,288,000 after buying an additional 194,114 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Southern in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $315,290,000. Synovus Financial Corp increased its stake in Southern by 72.4% in the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,077,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $277,570,000 after buying an additional 1,293,072 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in Southern by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,780,137 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $230,807,000 after buying an additional 284,022 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern 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 value of $1,250,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,138,296. This represents a 52.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total transaction of $100,811.25. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This trade represents a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the topic of several research reports. Guggenheim lowered shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. 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 report on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southern presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $90.54.

Southern Price Performance

NYSE SO opened at $90.22 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $86.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $87.21. The company has a market cap of $98.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The Southern Company has a 1 year low of $67.53 and a 1 year high of $94.45.

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

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.82%.

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.