Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. Acquires Shares of 4,849 The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. acquired a new stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 4,849 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $376,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SO. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Southern by 62.0% during the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 444 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Southern by 3,628.6% in the 1st quarter. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 522 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 508 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cassady Schiller Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Southern by 46.3% in the 4th quarter. Cassady Schiller Wealth Management LLC now owns 556 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Sloane N. Drake sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total transaction of $931,320.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 16,771 shares in the company, valued at $1,301,597.31. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Southern news, EVP Sloane N. Drake sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total value of $931,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,301,597.31. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Anthony L. Wilson sold 6,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.61, for a total transaction of $535,509.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 85,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,620,831.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,280 shares of company stock worth $1,678,625 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Southern Stock Performance

Shares of Southern stock opened at $88.40 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $96.66 billion, a PE ratio of 22.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 0.52. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $77.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.91. The Southern Company has a 1 year low of $61.56 and a 1 year high of $90.34.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $6.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.10 billion. Southern had a net margin of 17.67% and a return on equity of 12.88%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.79 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.26%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Southern from $80.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $66.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Argus upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Southern from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Wolfe Research cut shares of Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.71.

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.