Ipsen Advisor Group LLC Invests $242,000 in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Ipsen Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $242,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new stake in Southern during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. WFA Asset Management Corp grew its stake in shares of Southern by 84.9% in the fourth quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its holdings in Southern by 244.4% in the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Southern in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Southern news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $1,250,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 13,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,138,296. This trade represents a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the 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 sale, 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 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. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on SO shares. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Scotiabank upped their target price on Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Guggenheim lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of 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 upped their target price on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. One 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. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.46.

Southern Stock Down 1.3 %

SO stock opened at $87.73 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $86.94 and a two-hundred day moving average of $87.23. 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 company has a market cap of $96.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.88, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.46. The Southern Company has a 12 month low of $67.53 and a 12 month high of $94.45.

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

Southern Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.28%. The ex-dividend date was 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.