Heritage Wealth Advisors Has $521,000 Stock Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Heritage Wealth Advisors boosted its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the quarter. Heritage Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Southern were worth $521,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Southern by 125.0% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 7,871 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $710,000 after acquiring an additional 4,373 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 108,361 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,772,000 after buying an additional 5,589 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its position in shares of Southern by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 21,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,983,000 after buying an additional 1,031 shares during the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC boosted its stake in Southern by 4.3% in the third quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 3,011 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $272,000 after buying an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group grew its position in Southern by 7.6% in the third quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 9,945 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $897,000 after acquiring an additional 703 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Southern from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Guggenheim cut Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.46.

Insider Transactions at Southern

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total value of $100,811.25. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This trade represents a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 13,236 shares in the company, valued at $1,138,296. This represents a 52.35 % decrease in their position. 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 quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Southern Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE:SO opened at $87.73 on Wednesday. The Southern Company has a 52 week low of $67.53 and a 52 week high of $94.45. 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 firm’s fifty day moving average is $86.94 and its 200-day moving average is $87.23. The firm has a market cap of $96.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly 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). Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The firm had revenue of $6.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. Equities analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Southern’s payout ratio is 71.82%.

Southern Company 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.