Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. Purchases Shares of 5,127 The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO – Get Rating) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 5,127 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $366,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southern during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Karp Capital Management Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Southern during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. First Personal Financial Services purchased a new stake in shares of Southern during the third quarter valued at approximately $41,000. EWG Elevate Inc. purchased a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter worth $48,000. Finally, Worth Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Southern by 1,944.4% in the third quarter. Worth Asset Management LLC now owns 736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 700 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.78% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 14,546 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.95, for a total value of $1,032,038.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 120,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,569,766.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 14,546 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.95, for a total value of $1,032,038.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 120,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,569,766.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 852 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.31, for a total value of $57,348.12. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 22,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,484,791.29. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,680 shares of company stock worth $1,174,768 over the last three months. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Southern in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “sell” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Southern from $73.00 to $71.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 17th. Credit Suisse Group raised their price target on Southern from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 18th. Wolfe Research raised Southern from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $76.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, December 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Southern from $68.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 16th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.93.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SO opened at $67.90 on Friday. The Southern Company has a 1-year low of $58.85 and a 1-year high of $80.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.52. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $66.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $68.60. The company has a market capitalization of $73.94 billion, a PE ratio of 20.70, a PEG ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 0.49.

Southern (NYSE:SO – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.02. Southern had a return on equity of 11.73% and a net margin of 12.40%. The firm had revenue of $7.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.83 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.36 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 22.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 3.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.68 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 17th. This represents a $2.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.01%. Southern’s payout ratio is presently 82.93%.

About Southern

(Get Rating)

The Southern Co is a holding company, which engages in the generation and sale of electricity. It operates through the following segments: Traditional Electric Operating Companies, Southern Power and Southern Company Gas. The Traditional Electric Operating Companies segment refers to vertically integrated utilities that own generation, transmission and distribution facilities, and supplies electric services in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi.