Sage Mountain Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Sage Mountain Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 31.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,684 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,652 shares during the period. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $303,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Southern by 168.1% during the third quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 311 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 195 shares during the period. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, WFA Asset Management Corp grew its position in Southern by 84.9% during the fourth quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total value of $100,811.25. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 102,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. This trade represents a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total transaction of $2,997,532.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,946,985.28. This represents a 23.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of SO opened at $88.72 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $97.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.13, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $85.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $87.08. The Southern Company has a 1 year low of $67.53 and a 1 year high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $6.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.90 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.82%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SO has been the topic of several research reports. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim lowered shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.54.

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.