Jefferies Financial Group Has Lowered Expectations for Southern (NYSE:SO) Stock Price

Southern (NYSE:SO) had its price objective lowered by equities researchers at Jefferies Financial Group from $104.00 to $93.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price indicates a potential upside of 8.65% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Southern from $87.00 to $76.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Southern from $98.00 to $91.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Southern from $97.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $98.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $99.00 price target on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southern presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $96.79.

Southern Trading Down 0.5%

SO opened at $85.60 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $91.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $92.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.19, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.45. Southern has a fifty-two week low of $80.46 and a fifty-two week high of $100.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.59.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The utilities provider reported $1.60 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $7.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.04 billion. Southern had a net margin of 15.42% and a return on equity of 12.52%. Southern’s revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.39 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Southern will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southern

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Southern by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,486,295 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $228,597,000 after purchasing an additional 45,313 shares during the period. Ethic Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 17.3% in the first quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 31,176 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,863,000 after buying an additional 4,600 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 36.1% during the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 14,854 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,366,000 after buying an additional 3,941 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Southern by 1.0% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,912,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,003,419,000 after acquiring an additional 107,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Southern by 7.7% during the first quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 333,193 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,637,000 after acquiring an additional 23,889 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.