Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Has $170.86 Million Stock Position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS cut its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 0.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,075,518 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 7,861 shares during the period. Southern accounts for approximately 1.1% of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS owned about 0.19% of Southern worth $170,857,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter worth $315,290,000. Synovus Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Southern by 72.4% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,077,959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $277,570,000 after acquiring an additional 1,293,072 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,521,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,203,386,000 after acquiring an additional 1,075,768 shares during the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH bought a new position in Southern in the 4th quarter valued at about $51,605,000. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Southern by 44.8% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,504,693 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $123,866,000 after purchasing an additional 465,399 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Guggenheim lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Mizuho raised their price objective on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southern presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $90.54.

Southern Price Performance

SO opened at $89.65 on Thursday. The Southern Company has a fifty-two week low of $67.53 and a fifty-two week high of $94.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $86.39 and a 200 day moving average of $87.22. 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 firm has a market cap of $98.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.36, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its 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 the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. On average, research analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.82%.

Insider Transactions at Southern

In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total value of $2,997,532.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 106,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,946,985.28. The trade was a 23.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total transaction of $100,811.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company 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.