Versant Capital Management Inc Purchases 329 Shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO)

Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) by 35.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,262 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 329 shares during the quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc’s holdings in Southern were worth $104,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. OneAscent Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Southern in the 3rd quarter worth $576,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern by 5.4% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 108,361 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,772,000 after buying an additional 5,589 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Southern by 94.4% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 288,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,033,000 after buying an additional 140,151 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in Southern by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 3,245,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $292,679,000 after acquiring an additional 15,300 shares during the period. Finally, HBW Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Southern by 219.4% during the 3rd quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC now owns 8,971 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $809,000 after acquiring an additional 6,162 shares during the last quarter. 64.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on SO. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Southern from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Mizuho cut shares of Southern from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $90.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $71.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Southern from $90.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Southern has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.14.

Insider Transactions at Southern

In related news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total value of $100,503.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 88,393 shares in the company, valued at $7,592,958.70. The trade was a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Southern Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE SO opened at $82.32 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.20 billion, a PE ratio of 19.14, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.52. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $86.05 and its 200 day moving average is $85.90. The Southern Company has a twelve month low of $65.80 and a twelve month high of $94.45. 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.10. Southern had a net margin of 17.87% and a return on equity of 12.78%. The firm had revenue of $7.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.42 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 18th were issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.50%. Southern’s payout ratio is 66.98%.

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.