Southern (NYSE:SO) Now Covered by Analysts at Raymond James

Equities research analysts at Raymond James started coverage on shares of Southern (NYSE:SO) in a research report issued on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage set an “outperform” rating and a $98.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock. Raymond James’ price objective indicates a potential upside of 8.62% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. KeyCorp lowered Southern from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $78.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Southern from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $93.00 price target on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.00.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO opened at $90.22 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $89.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $87.31. Southern has a 52-week low of $76.96 and a 52-week high of $94.45. The firm has a market cap of $99.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.50, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.03. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. The company had revenue of $7.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.17 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.03 EPS. Southern’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Southern will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Strs Ohio acquired a new position in shares of Southern in the 1st quarter valued at $29,658,000. Jacobi Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Southern by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 28,452 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,616,000 after acquiring an additional 715 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Southern by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 289,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,631,000 after acquiring an additional 24,564 shares during the period. SWAN Capital LLC boosted its position in Southern by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. SWAN Capital LLC now owns 18,525 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,703,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the period. Finally, Rollins Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Southern by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Rollins Financial Advisors LLC now owns 18,509 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,702,000 after purchasing an additional 725 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

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.