The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.72 Per Share

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 22nd, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th will be given a dividend of 0.72 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, June 6th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.95%. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70.

Southern has increased its dividend by an average of 3.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 23 consecutive years. Southern has a dividend payout ratio of 64.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Southern to earn $4.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 65.1%.

Southern Stock Performance

NYSE SO opened at $72.99 on Tuesday. Southern has a 1 year low of $61.56 and a 1 year high of $75.80. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $79.90 billion, a PE ratio of 20.11, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.49. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $69.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $69.18.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The utilities provider reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.90 billion. Southern had a net margin of 15.79% and a return on equity of 11.40%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 14.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. Analysts predict that Southern will post 4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southern news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 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 SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Southern news, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 899 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.06, for a total value of $60,286.94. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 22,502 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,508,984.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.94, for a total transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,899 shares of company stock worth $739,587 in the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on SO shares. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. UBS Group cut shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.00.

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.