James Jeffrey Peoples Sells 14,540 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Stock

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,138,296. This trade represents a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Southern Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of Southern stock opened at $85.72 on Friday. The Southern Company has a 52-week low of $65.80 and a 52-week high of $94.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $86.77. The firm has a market cap of $93.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.53.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.36%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.98%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SO. Fiduciary Alliance LLC grew its position in Southern by 250.9% during the third quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 10,477 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $945,000 after buying an additional 7,491 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its position in Southern by 3.4% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 368,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,245,000 after buying an additional 12,011 shares during the period. Prospect Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Southern during the third quarter worth about $213,000. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Southern by 3.2% during the third quarter. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73,913 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,573,000 after buying an additional 2,279 shares during the period. Finally, Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new position in Southern during the third quarter worth about $321,000. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Guggenheim cut shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southern presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $89.79.

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.