MADDEN SECURITIES Corp Has $336,000 Stake in Southern Company (The) $SO

MADDEN SECURITIES Corp reduced its position in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 45.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,658 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,092 shares during the quarter. MADDEN SECURITIES Corp’s holdings in Southern were worth $336,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SO. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Southern during the first quarter valued at approximately $510,229,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Southern by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 104,210,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,582,126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,419,724 shares during the last quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its holdings in shares of Southern by 125.4% during the 1st quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,349,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $124,059,000 after buying an additional 750,500 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Southern by 2,780.2% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 700,628 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $64,423,000 after buying an additional 676,302 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in Southern by 40.5% in the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,161,929 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $198,789,000 after buying an additional 623,417 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on SO shares. Evercore ISI set a $103.00 target price on Southern in a research note on Monday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Southern from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on Southern from $93.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $95.77.

Insider Activity at Southern

In related news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 13,158 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total value of $1,250,010.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 93,661 shares in the company, valued at $8,897,795. This represents a 12.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Southern Price Performance

SO stock opened at $95.46 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $105.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.54, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $93.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $91.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.74. Southern Company has a 52-week low of $80.46 and a 52-week high of $96.44.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.70 billion. Southern had a net margin of 15.10% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.10 earnings per share. Southern has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.500 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th were given a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 76.09%.

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.