Neal Dunn Is Busy Selling This Utility Stock

Rep. Neal Dunn, the U.S. representative for Florida's 2nd congressional district since 2017, disclosed yesterday that he sold shares of Southern Co (SO:US) in early January.

Southern, the second-largest utility company in the U.S. in terms of customer base, was selling SO shares on January 05, when this utility stock closed at $70.38. Both transactions were valued between $15,000 - $50,000. The closing price on Friday, February 17, was $66.63, which means that Rep. Dunn was selling at nearly 5% higher prices.

Southern stock trades nearly 7.33% lower year-to-date (YTD) as the market shifts its focus from defensive utilities toward high-growth stocks. The shift in market sentiment is based on expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will shift away from its ultra-hawkish monetary policy and stop raising rates in the coming months. 

Shares of Southern fell last week after the company offered a full-year forecast for profit that missed the average analyst estimate. The utility company said it expects to generate $3.60 (up or down 5 cents) in profit per share in 2023, missing the consensus of $3.64. The company also introduced a 2024 EPS forecast, which also trailed the average analyst estimate. 

For the fourth quarter, Southern delivered adjusted EPS of $0.26 on revenue of $7.05 billion, better than the analyst estimate for earnings of $0.24 on revenue of $4.44 billion. 

“Our Operations team, generation fleet, and power delivery system performed exceedingly well in 2022," said Chairman, President, and CEO, Thomas A. Fanning. 

"This included meeting an all-time peak load of over 41,000 megawatts in June, and an extremely frigid Christmas weekend that pushed electric demand to a winter peak of nearly 38,000 megawatts – a December record for our service footprint."

In addition to selling Southern shares, Congressman Dunn also disclosed that he sold preferred shares of financial stocks, namely KeyCorp (KEY:US) and Regions Financial (RF:US).