Cullen Investment Group LTD. Reduces Stock Holdings in Southern Company (The) $SO

Cullen Investment Group LTD. lowered its stake in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 7.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 78,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 6,166 shares during the quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s holdings in Southern were worth $6,787,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cloud Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Southern in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Grey Fox Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new position in Southern in the third quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Southern by 120.1% in the third quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 361 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 197 shares in 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 topic of several research reports. KeyCorp raised Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Barclays dropped their price target on Southern from $91.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. TD Cowen upped their price target on Southern from $108.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Southern from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, December 6th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.08.

Southern Stock Up 0.6%

SO stock opened at $94.51 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $93.16 and a 200 day moving average of $91.78. The firm has a market cap of $104.07 billion, a PE ratio of 24.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.44. Southern Company has a twelve month low of $83.09 and a twelve month high of $100.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.01). Southern had a return on equity of 12.52% and a net margin of 14.69%.The company had revenue of $6.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.41 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.50 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 17th were given a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 17th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is 75.32%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southern news, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 6,669 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.55, for a total transaction of $643,891.95. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 30,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,973,740. This trade represents a 17.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Southern Profile

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an Atlanta-based energy holding company that provides electric and gas utility services and owns power generation assets across the United States. Founded in 1945, the company operates a portfolio of regulated electric utilities and affiliated businesses that generate, transmit and distribute electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Southern’s principal regulated electric subsidiaries include Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power, which serve large portions of the southeastern United States.