New Covenant Trust Company N.A. Makes New $80,000 Investment in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 1,121 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $80,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SO. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Southern by 11.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 26,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,887,000 after buying an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its stake in shares of Southern by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 121,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,493,000 after purchasing an additional 4,498 shares during the period. Covenant Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Southern in the 4th quarter valued at $221,000. Veracity Capital LLC bought a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at $324,000. Finally, JB Capital LLC raised its stake in Southern by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. JB Capital LLC now owns 5,415 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $380,000 after acquiring an additional 462 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on SO shares. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Southern from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. UBS Group lowered shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Argus increased their price target on Southern from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Southern from $73.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $76.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, EVP Sloane N. Drake sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total value of $931,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,301,597.31. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Southern news, EVP Sloane N. Drake sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total transaction of $931,320.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,301,597.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director The Ernest J. Moniz 2018 Trust 8,948 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 30th. The disclosure for this trade can be found here. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern Price Performance

NYSE:SO traded up $4.05 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $87.57. The stock had a trading volume of 8,498,093 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,494,367. The Southern Company has a 12 month low of $61.56 and a 12 month high of $87.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.75 billion, a PE ratio of 22.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $73.90.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) 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 last year, the company posted $0.79 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that The Southern Company will post 4.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th will be given a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 19th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is 74.42%.

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.