Southern (NYSE:SO) Price Target Raised to $66.00 at Barclays

Southern (NYSE:SO) had its target price upped by Barclays from $65.00 to $66.00 in a research report report published on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

SO has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Southern from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 16th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an outperform rating and set a $76.00 target price (up from $72.00) on shares of Southern in a research note on Monday, April 1st. UBS Group cut shares of Southern from a buy rating to a neutral rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $74.07.

Southern Stock Up 3.0 %

NYSE SO opened at $69.80 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.56. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $68.98. Southern has a 12 month low of $61.56 and a 12 month high of $75.80. The company has a market capitalization of $76.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.23, a PEG ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.49.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The utilities provider reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.05. Southern had a net margin of 15.79% and a return on equity of 11.40%. The business had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.26 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Southern will post 4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.94, for a total value of $334,700.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 129,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,672,210.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.94, for a total value of $334,700.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 129,552 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,672,210.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 899 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.06, for a total transaction of $60,286.94. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 22,502 shares in the company, valued at $1,508,984.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 10,899 shares of company stock valued at $739,587. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Southern

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 0.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,572,665 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,444,343,000 after buying an additional 352,023 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Southern by 5.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 38,906,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,518,045,000 after purchasing an additional 1,838,857 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in Southern by 53.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,444,163 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,153,065,000 after purchasing an additional 5,707,845 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Southern by 1.6% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,737,843 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $694,953,000 after acquiring an additional 163,986 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Southern by 18.4% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,672,375 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $748,348,000 after acquiring an additional 1,662,067 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.