Southern (NYSE:SO) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.13 EPS

Southern (NYSE:SO) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The utilities provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.13, Briefing.com reports. Southern had a net margin of 16.74% and a return on equity of 12.11%. The business had revenue of $6.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.79 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Southern Price Performance

Southern stock traded up $0.52 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $75.85. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,578,202 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,244,740. Southern has a twelve month low of $61.56 and a twelve month high of $75.98. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $70.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $69.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $83.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.60, a P/E/G ratio of 4.72 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 17th. This is a positive change from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.80%. Southern’s dividend payout ratio is currently 72.35%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 899 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.06, for a total transaction of $60,286.94. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,502 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,508,984.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 9,126 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total transaction of $684,815.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 121,504 shares in the company, valued at $9,117,660.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Christopher Cummiskey sold 899 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.06, for a total value of $60,286.94. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,502 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,508,984.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 20,025 shares of company stock worth $1,424,402. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SO. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Southern from $72.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $78.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Southern from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Southern from $80.00 to $77.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $76.00 target price (up from $72.00) on shares of Southern in a research note on Monday, April 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.71.

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.