Southern Company (The) $SO Stake Boosted by Great Lakes Retirement Inc.

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. grew its stake in shares of Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 34,571 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,829 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in Southern were worth $3,175,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.4% during the first 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. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.0% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,912,663 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,003,419,000 after purchasing an additional 107,394 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 1.2% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,680,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $614,297,000 after purchasing an additional 81,066 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Southern during the first quarter valued at approximately $510,229,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Southern by 4.1% during the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,046,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $280,107,000 after purchasing an additional 120,816 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on SO. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $99.00 target price on shares of Southern in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Southern from $97.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $99.00 price objective on shares of Southern in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. BTIG Research began coverage on Southern in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Finally, Cowen began coverage on Southern in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southern currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $99.66.

Southern Stock Performance

SO opened at $94.20 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $103.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.54. Southern Company has a 1-year low of $80.46 and a 1-year high of $100.83. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $94.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $92.47.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $7.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.04 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 15.10%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.39 earnings per share. Southern has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.300-4.30 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.540-0.540 EPS. Research analysts predict that Southern Company will post 4.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be given a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is 76.09%.

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.