Southern Company (NYSE:SO) finished Friday with a subtraction of -$0.35 to close at $64.72, a downside of -0.54 percent. An average of 4,342,140 shares of common stock have been traded in the last five days. There was a fall of -$4.65 in the past week, and it reached a new high 13 times over the past 12 months. The last 20 days have seen an average of 4,139,700 shares traded, while the 50-day average volume stands at 3,750,874.
SO stock has decreased by -5.68% in the last month. The company shares reached their 1-month lowest point of $64.36 on 09/29/23. With the stock rallying to its 52-week high on 05/11/23, shares of the company touched a low of $58.85 and a high of $75.80 in 52 weeks. It has reached a new high 7 times so far this year and lost -9.37% or -$6.69 in price. In spite of this, the price is down -14.62% from the 52-week high.
Insider Transactions
SO stock investors should be aware that Southern Company (SO) stock had its last reported insider trading activity 19 days ago on Sep 11. In this transaction, the insider spent $339,150. EVP and CIO, DAVIS MARTIN BERNARD, disposed of 1,490 shares at a price of $67.05 on Sep 05. The insider now owns more than $99,904 worth of shares. Prior to that, EVP & CCCS Officer Cummiskey Christopher went on to Sale 5,000 shares at $68.30 each on Aug 29. An amount of $341,500 was transacted.
Valuation Metrics
Southern Company (SO) has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 22.94. The stock’s beta is 0.53. Other valuation ratios to consider include the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio at 2.55, the price-to-book (PB) ratio at 2.30.
The company has a payout ratio of 82.82%. The company’s most recent quarterly dividend payment was $0.70 a share, without any change from last year. Its latest increase dividend $0.02 reported on Monday April 17 2023.
Financial Health
The quick ratio of Southern Company for the three months ended June 29 was 0.61, and the current ratio was 0.83, indicating that the company is not able to meet its debt obligations. Further, the company has a long term debt to equity ratio of 1.84 and a total debt to equity ratio of 2.03 for the quarter ending June 29. Its gross profit as reported stood at $5.37 billion compared to revenue of $29.28 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the three-month period that ended June 29, Southern Company had $55.13 billion in total debt. In the quarter under review, the net income was down than the previous quarter. The company posted a net income of $838.0 million in the quarter, while revenues of -$2.25 billion were shrunk -35.44%. The analyst consensus anticipated Southern Company’s latest quarter earnings to come in at $0.75 per share, but it turned out to be $0.79, a 5.30% surprise. For the quarter, EBITDA amounted to $2.49 billion. Shareholders own equity worth $1.09 billion.
Technical Picture
From a technical analysis perspective, let’s take a brief look at Southern Company (SO) price momentum. RSI 9-day as of the close on 29 September was 20.99%, suggesting the stock is oversold, with historical volatility in this time frame at 14.56%.
As of today, SO’s price is $66.47 -6.70% or -$4.65 from its 5-day moving average. SO is currently trading -4.44% lower than its 20-day SMA and -13.21% lower than its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is -8.93% below the SMA50 and -8.88% below the SMA200.
The stochastic %K and %D were 2.98% and 9.70%, respectively, and the average true range (ATR) was 1.31. With the 14-day stochastic at 4.88% and the average true range at 1.25, the RSI (14) stands at 28.68%. The stock has reached -2.88 on the 9-day MACD Oscillator while the 14-day reading was at -3.60.
Analyst Ratings
BofA Securities upgraded Southern Company (NYSE: SO) to a a Neutral rating in its most recent analyst report. Previously, the stock was rated as an Underperform. The consensus rating for Southern Company (SO) among analysts is Overweight. According to current brokerage recommendations, 1 brokerage firm advise that investors sell SO, while 9 suggest investors hold. There are 0 analysts who rate the stock as underweight. The stock is rated overweight by 0 analysts, while 9 others rate it as a “buy”.
What is SO’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts predict a range of price targets between $65.00 and $81.00, with a median target of $72.50. Taking a look at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts for Southern Company (SO) stock is $73.25.
