MONECO Advisors LLC Has $733,000 Stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

MONECO Advisors LLC grew its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 8,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the period. MONECO Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $733,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SO. Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in Southern by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC now owns 6,211 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $511,000 after purchasing an additional 352 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Southern by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,470 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $615,000 after buying an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC raised its stake in Southern by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 20,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,665,000 after buying an additional 268 shares during the period. TCW Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Southern by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 15,305 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,260,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Southern by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 322,067 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,513,000 after acquiring an additional 7,395 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank raised their price target on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Guggenheim lowered shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Southern presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $90.54.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total value 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 $1,138,296. This trade represents a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total value of $100,503.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,592,958.70. This trade represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Southern Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:SO opened at $88.46 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $83.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $86.82. The Southern Company has a one year low of $65.99 and a one year high of $94.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $96.92 billion, a PE ratio of 22.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.53.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. The company had revenue of $6.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.26%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.82%.

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.