Westside Investment Management Inc. Has $221,000 Stake in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 9.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,682 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $221,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Southern by 10.2% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 158,754 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,315,000 after acquiring an additional 14,648 shares during the period. DRW Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $509,000. Certified Advisory Corp bought a new stake in shares of Southern in the 2nd quarter valued at $604,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in shares of Southern by 50.0% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 185,436 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $14,384,000 after buying an additional 61,771 shares during the period. Finally, Evergreen Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Southern by 12.4% in the second quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,606 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $512,000 after buying an additional 731 shares during the period. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays increased their price target on Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective 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. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of Southern from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southern news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was 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 directly owns 88,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Southern Stock Down 0.8 %

SO stock opened at $84.05 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $84.56 and its 200-day moving average is $86.40. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $65.80 and a twelve month high of $94.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $92.09 billion, a PE ratio of 19.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $7.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.14 billion. Southern had a net margin of 17.87% and a return on equity of 12.78%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.42 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that The Southern Company will post 4.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern 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.