The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) Raises Dividend to $0.74 Per Share

by · The Markets Daily

The Southern Company (NYSE:SO – Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 21st, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a dividend of 0.74 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, June 6th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.30%. This is a 2.8% increase from Southern’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72.

Southern has raised its dividend payment by an average of 3.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 24 years. Southern has a dividend payout ratio of 63.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Southern to earn $4.59 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 62.7%.

Southern Trading Down 2.2 %

NYSE SO traded down $2.03 during trading on Monday, hitting $89.78. 1,840,791 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,510,399. Southern has a 12-month low of $71.66 and a 12-month high of $94.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $89.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $87.27. The firm has a market cap of $98.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.39, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.39.

Southern (NYSE:SO – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.90 billion. Southern had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 16.47%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Southern will post 4.29 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total transaction of $1,250,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 13,236 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,138,296. This trade represents a 52.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 32,190 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.12, for a total transaction of $2,997,532.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 106,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,946,985.28. This trade represents a 23.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock valued at $4,348,784. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group boosted their price target on Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Southern from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $94.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Guggenheim cut shares of Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Southern in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $92.00.

Read Our Latest Research Report on Southern

Southern Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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