Royal Fund Management LLC Purchases 583 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Royal Fund Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 11.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,478 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 583 shares during the period. Royal Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $393,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Southern by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 99,572,665 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,444,343,000 after buying an additional 352,023 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 53.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 16,444,163 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,153,065,000 after purchasing an additional 5,707,845 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Southern by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,811,307 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $634,988,000 after buying an additional 349,122 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Southern in the 4th quarter valued at about $631,068,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in Southern by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,547,188 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $488,461,000 after buying an additional 2,096,988 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group cut Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $78.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Southern from $67.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Barclays increased their price objective on Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $76.00 target price (up previously from $72.00) on shares of Southern in a research report on Monday, April 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southern has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $76.36.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of SO stock traded up $0.58 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $79.04. The stock had a trading volume of 288,335 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,668,026. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.42 billion, a PE ratio of 20.27, a PEG ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.51. The Southern Company has a 12 month low of $61.56 and a 12 month high of $80.84.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.13. Southern had a net margin of 16.74% and a return on equity of 12.07%. The firm had revenue of $6.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.59 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.79 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 3.99 EPS for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 20th were given a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 17th. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.42%.

Insider Transactions at Southern

In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total transaction of $684,815.04. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,504 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,117,660.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.