Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc. Sells 1,784 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc. reduced its stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 5.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 32,996 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,784 shares during the quarter. Pettyjohn Wood & White Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $2,716,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its holdings in Southern by 17,272.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 14,647,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,320,866,000 after buying an additional 14,562,689 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp grew 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 purchasing an additional 1,293,072 shares in the last quarter. 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 valued at $2,203,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075,768 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH bought a new stake in Southern during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $51,605,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Southern by 12,791.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 291,996 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $24,037,000 after purchasing an additional 289,731 shares in the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total value of $1,250,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,138,296. The trade was a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total transaction of $100,503.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,592,958.70. This trade represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on SO shares. Mizuho lifted their price objective 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. Morgan Stanley reduced 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. Guggenheim lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.54.

Southern Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $88.47 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $97.03 billion, a PE ratio of 22.06, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.53. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $84.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $86.88. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $65.99 and a twelve month high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.90 billion. Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.82%.

Southern Company 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.