Eastern Bank Lowers Stock Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Eastern Bank reduced its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 3.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,070 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 250 shares during the quarter. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Southern were worth $582,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 17,272.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 14,647,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,320,866,000 after acquiring an additional 14,562,689 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 8,741.6% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,502,813 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $135,524,000 after acquiring an additional 1,485,816 shares during the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 72.4% in the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,077,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $277,570,000 after acquiring an additional 1,293,072 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,521,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,203,386,000 after acquiring an additional 1,075,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Southern by 2,719.7% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 872,373 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,670,000 after acquiring an additional 841,435 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Mizuho downgraded shares of Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Southern from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price 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, eight have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $90.14.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total transaction of $100,503.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,592,958.70. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Southern stock opened at $81.81 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $86.16. The company has a market cap of $89.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.03, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.52. The Southern Company has a 12-month low of $65.80 and a 12-month high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.10. Southern had a net margin of 17.87% and a return on equity of 12.78%. The business had revenue of $7.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.42 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.03 EPS for the current year.

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.