Vanguard Group Adds 1 Million Shares of Southern Company in Q1

The Vanguard Group is the largest institutional investor in Georgia-based Southern Company (SO), one of the biggest regulated utilities. It added more than 1 million shares and raised its stake to 7.4% as of March 31. At the end of the first quarter, it held 74.6 million shares compared to 73.5 million shares in the fourth quarter.

Among the larger additions, Franklin Advisers added net 17.6 million shares of Southern Company, which took its stake to 3.9% as of March 31. At the end of the fourth quarter, it held 2.1% of Southern Company’s total outstanding shares.

T. Rowe Price sold net 6.1 million shares during the first quarter. It held 2.9%, or 29.7 million shares, of Southern Company. In the fourth quarter, it held 3.6% of SO’s total outstanding shares.

MFS Investment Management added net 5.3 million shares during the first quarter. It held a 1.5% stake in Southern Company as of March 31.

Southern Company stock has consistently underperformed utilities (XLU) at large in the last few years due to concerns with its power plant. Cost overruns and frequent delays at its power plants significantly marred its market performance. SO stock has fallen almost 8% year-to-date.

You can read more about Southern Company’s valuation, analysts’ views, and price targets in Top 10 S&P 500 Utilities by Market Capitalization.