Southern (NYSE:SO) Stock Rating Lowered by Guggenheim

Guggenheim lowered shares of Southern (NYSE:SO) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report published on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.14.

Southern Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of SO opened at $82.23 on Thursday. Southern has a 1 year low of $65.80 and a 1 year high of $94.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $90.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.52. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $86.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.66.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $7.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.14 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.78% and a net margin of 17.87%. Southern’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.42 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Southern will post 4.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was 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 directly owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Southern

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Southern by 168.1% during the third quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 195 shares during the last quarter. West Branch Capital LLC raised its position in Southern by 34.7% in the third quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 501 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares during the period. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the 3rd quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Southern during the 3rd quarter worth about $49,000. 64.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.