Griffin Asset Management Inc. Sells 700 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Griffin Asset Management Inc. cut its holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 4.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,668 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 700 shares during the period. Griffin Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SO. Vinva Investment Management Ltd raised its stake in Southern by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 7,157 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $466,000 after acquiring an additional 257 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its position in shares of Southern by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 107,524 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,959,000 after purchasing an additional 13,490 shares during the period. Teza Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the 3rd quarter valued at $579,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its holdings in Southern by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 6,691 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $433,000 after buying an additional 513 shares during the period. Finally, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Southern by 6,093.7% in the 3rd quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 490,357 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,736,000 after buying an additional 482,440 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Argus increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Southern from $72.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. UBS Group cut shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $76.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Southern Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of SO stock opened at $77.57 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $84.82 billion, a PE ratio of 20.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.51. The Southern Company has a 1 year low of $61.56 and a 1 year high of $80.84. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $77.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $72.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.65.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.13. Southern had a return on equity of 12.07% and a net margin of 16.74%. The company had revenue of $6.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.59 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.79 EPS. Southern’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th were issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.71%. This is an increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 17th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.42%.

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.