Bank of Nova Scotia Purchases 7,932 Shares of Southern Company (The) $SO

Bank of Nova Scotia raised its position in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 134,197 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,932 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia’s holdings in Southern were worth $12,323,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of SO. Equitable Trust Co. raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 24.7% in the 2nd quarter. Equitable Trust Co. now owns 34,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,171,000 after purchasing an additional 6,843 shares during the period. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC increased its position in Southern by 23.6% in the second quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 7,145 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $656,000 after buying an additional 1,366 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its stake in shares of Southern by 5.5% in the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 822,403 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $75,521,000 after buying an additional 42,531 shares during the period. Shelton Capital Management lifted its position in shares of Southern by 700.6% during the 2nd quarter. Shelton Capital Management now owns 161,618 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,841,000 after buying an additional 141,430 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 105,904,243 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,725,187,000 after acquiring an additional 1,694,066 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on SO shares. Scotiabank restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $99.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of Southern to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Southern from $78.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on Southern from $98.00 to $91.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Southern presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $99.03.

Southern Stock Performance

Southern stock opened at $83.93 on Thursday. Southern Company has a 1-year low of $80.46 and a 1-year high of $100.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $92.41 billion, a PE ratio of 20.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.45. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $92.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $92.37.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $7.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. Southern had a net margin of 15.42% and a return on equity of 12.52%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.39 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 8th. Investors of record on Monday, November 17th were paid a dividend of $0.74 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 17th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.27%.

Southern 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.