The Southern Company (NYSE:SO) saw an upside of 0.27% to close Monday at $68.02 after adding $0.18 on the day. The 5-day average trading volume is 4,068,140 shares of the company’s common stock. It has gained $72.54 in the past week and touched a new high 1 time within the past 5 days. An average of 4,150,840 shares of the company has been traded in the last 20 days, and the 50-day average volume stands at 4,268,596.
SO’s 1-month performance is -3.76% or -$2.66 on its low of $67.50 reached on 08/04/23. The company’s shares have touched a 52-week low of $58.85 and high of $80.57, with the stock’s rally to the 52-week high happening on 05/11/23. YTD, SO has lost -4.75% or -$3.39 and has reached a new high 7 times. However, the current price is down -15.58% from the 52-week high price.
Insider Transactions
SO stock investors last saw insider trading activity on Jul 21.Greene Kimberly S, (Chairman, President & CEO, GPC) most recently sold 20,000 shares at $72.62 per share on Jul 21. This transaction cost the insider $1,452,400. CEO, Southern Nuclear, Kuczynski Stephen E, sold 5,000 shares at a price of $70.58 on Jul 10. Then, on Jun 12, CEO, Southern Nuclear Kuczynski Stephen E sold 5,000 shares at a price of $71.48 per share. This transaction amounted to $357,400.
Valuation Metrics
SO stock has a beta of 0.52. Moving on to other valuation ratios, the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 2.71 while the price-to-book (PB) in the most recent quarter is 2.42.
The Southern Company’s quick ratio for the recent period was 0.60, with the current ratio over the same period at 0.80. In terms of profitability, the gross margin trailing 12 months is 80.40%. The trailing 12-month EBITDA margin is 33.19%. The firm’s gross profit as reported stood at $5.37 billion against revenue of $29.28 billion.
Earnings Surprise
Net income and sales went down compared to those figures reported in the previous quarter. Net income shrunk -35.44% to $838.0 million, while revenue of -$2.25 billion was 368.97% off the previous quarter. EBITDA for the quarter stood at more than $2.49 billion. SO stock balance sheet for the recent quarter shows that total liabilities totaled 102.47 billion, with total debt at $62.62 billion. Shareholders hold equity totaling $1.09 billion.
Let’s look briefly at The Southern Company (SO) price momentum from a technical analysis perspective. The 9-day relative strength index as at close on 07 August was 27.68% to suggest the stock is trending oversold, with historical volatility in this time period at 16.83%.
The stock’s 5-day moving average is $69.35, reflecting a -5.97% or -$4.32 change from its current price. SO is currently trading -3.02% above its 20-day SMA, +2.78% above its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is away from the SMA50 by -3.99% and SMA200 by+4.02%.
Stochastic %K and %D was 4.60% and 17.20% and the average true range (ATR) pointed at 1.38. The RSI (14) points at 34.98%, while the 14-day stochastic is at 8.13% with the period’s ATR at 1.32. The stock’s 9-day MACD Oscillator is pointing at -2.66 and -3.07 on the 14-day charts.
Analyst Ratings
In the most recent analyst report for The Southern Company (NYSE: SO), Goldman launched coverage with a Buy rating. Analysts offering their rating for SO stock have a consensus rating for the stock as Overweight. Currently, 2 brokerage advisors rate SO as a “sell,”, while 6 advise that investors “Hold.” 1 analysts have rated the stock as underweight. 0 rates the stock as overweight while 7 have offered a “buy” rating.
What is SO’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts have a consensus price target ranging from a low of $60.00 and a high of $81.00, with their median price target at $74.00. Looking at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts is for The Southern Company (SO) stock is $73.36.
