Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Acquires 566 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 22,558 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 566 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Southern were worth $1,857,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Southern by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 102,790,453 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,461,710,000 after buying an additional 698,422 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Southern by 4.6% during 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 period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Southern during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $848,019,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Southern by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,599,710 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $543,288,000 after purchasing an additional 194,114 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter valued at $315,290,000. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Southern Trading Up 1.2 %

SO opened at $91.10 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $87.34 and a 200 day moving average of $87.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The Southern Company has a 12 month low of $67.53 and a 12 month high of $94.45. The firm has a market cap of $99.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.01). Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. The company had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.90 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.16%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was 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 owns 106,819 shares in the company, valued at $9,946,985.28. The trade was a 23.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total value of $100,811.25. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 102,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,148,284.90. The trade was a 1.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Mizuho increased their target price on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price target on Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a report on Thursday, March 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $91.46.

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.