Southern Company (NYSE:SO) saw a downside of -3.15% to close Tuesday at $67.11 after subtracting -$2.18 on the day. The 5-day average trading volume is 3,714,160 shares of the company’s common stock. It has gained $71.74 in the past week and touched a new high 1 time within the past 5 days. An average of 3,912,630 shares of the company has been traded in the last 20 days, and the 50-day average volume stands at 3,718,374.
SO’s 1-month performance is -1.44% or -$0.98 on its low of $65.93 reached on 09/05/23. The company’s shares have touched a 52-week low of $58.85 and high of $75.80, with the stock’s rally to the 52-week high happening on 05/11/23. YTD, SO has lost -6.02% or -$4.30 and has reached a new high 7 times. However, the current price is down -11.46% from the 52-week high price.
Insider Transactions
SO stock investors last saw insider trading activity on Sep 11.Kuczynski Stephen E (CEO, Southern Nuclear) most recently sold 5,000 shares at $67.83 per share on Sep 11. This transaction cost the insider $339,150. EVP and CIO, DAVIS MARTIN BERNARD, sold 1,490 shares at a price of $67.05 on Sep 05. Then, on Aug 29, EVP & CCCS Officer Cummiskey Christopher sold 5,000 shares at a price of $68.30 per share. This transaction amounted to $341,500.
Valuation Metrics
SO stock has a beta of 0.51. Moving on to other valuation ratios, the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 2.65 while the price-to-book (PB) in the most recent quarter is 2.39.
Southern Company’s quick ratio for the period ended June 29 was 0.61, with the current ratio over the same period at 0.83. As well, the company’s long term debt to equity for the quarter ending June 29 was 1.84, while the total debt to equity was 2.03.. In terms of profitability, the gross margin trailing 12 months is 23.47%. The trailing 12-month EBITDA margin is 33.19% while for the period ending June 29, Southern Company’s operating margin was 18.32%. The firm’s gross profit as reported stood at $5.37 billion against revenue of $29.28 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the quarterly period ending June 29 this year, 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. Analysts expected SO to announce $0.75 per share in earnings in its latest quarter, but it posted $0.79, representing a 5.30% surprise. EBITDA for the quarter stood at more than $2.49 billion. SO stock balance sheet for the quarter ending June 29 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 Southern Company (SO) price momentum from a technical analysis perspective. The 9-day relative strength index as at close on 26 September was 31.08% to suggest the stock is trending Neutral, with historical volatility in this time period at 21.65%.
The stock’s 5-day moving average is $69.37, reflecting a -5.36% or -$3.80 change from its current price. SO is currently trading -1.50% above its 20-day SMA, -8.48% above its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is away from the SMA50 by -4.37% and SMA200 by-2.03%.
Stochastic %K and %D was 41.39% and 58.62% and the average true range (ATR) pointed at 1.20. The RSI (14) points at 37.65%, while the 14-day stochastic is at 7.40% with the period’s ATR at 1.16. The stock’s 9-day MACD Oscillator is pointing at -1.49 and -0.84 on the 14-day charts.
Analyst Ratings
In the most recent analyst report for Southern Company (NYSE: SO), BofA Securities upgraded it to a Neutral rating. They previously had an Underperform rating on the stock. Analysts offering their rating for SO stock have a consensus rating for the stock as Overweight. Currently, 1 brokerage advisors rate SO as a “sell,”, while 9 advise that investors “Hold.” 0 analysts have rated the stock as underweight. 0 rates the stock as overweight while 9 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 $65.00 and a high of $81.00, with their median price target at $72.50. Looking at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts is for Southern Company (SO) stock is $73.25.
