Southern Company (The) $SO Shares Sold by Courier Capital LLC

Courier Capital LLC lessened its holdings in Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,689 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 651 shares during the quarter. Courier Capital LLC’s holdings in Southern were worth $2,818,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ameriflex Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 275.0% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriflex Group Inc. now owns 300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares in the last quarter. Cheviot Value Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Accredited Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Rossby Financial LCC purchased a new position in shares of Southern during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.10% of the company’s stock.

Southern Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SO opened at $98.15 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $107.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.23, a P/E/G ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $93.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $91.79. Southern Company has a twelve month low of $80.46 and a twelve month high of $98.42.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.10 EPS. Southern has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.500-1.500 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that 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 was paid on Monday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th were given a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 18th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 76.09%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 13,158 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.16% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SO. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Southern from $98.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $99.00 target price on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Wall Street Zen lowered Southern from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. UBS Group increased their target price on Southern from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. 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 equities research 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Southern has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $94.69.

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.