Looking At Southern's Recent Unusual Options Activity

Investors with a lot of money to spend have taken a bullish stance on Southern SO.

And retail traders should know.

We noticed this today when the positions showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga.

Whether these are institutions or just wealthy individuals, we don't know. But when something this big happens with SO, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 8 options trades for Southern.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 87% bullish and 12%, bearish.

Out of all of the options we uncovered, there was 1 put, for a total amount of $31,680, and 7, calls, for a total amount of $273,113.

What's The Price Target?

After evaluating the trading volumes and Open Interest, it's evident that the major market movers are focusing on a price band between $40.0 and $82.5 for Southern, spanning the last three months.

Volume & Open Interest Trends

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Southern options trades today is 1901.6 with a total volume of 1,983.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Southern's big money trades within a strike price range of $40.0 to $82.5 over the last 30 days.

Southern Option Activity Analysis: Last 30 Days

Biggest Options Spotted:

About Southern

Southern is one of the largest utilities in the U.S. The company serves 9 million customers with vertically integrated electric utilities in three states and natural gas distribution utilities in four states. It owns 50 gigawatts of rate-regulated generating capacity, primarily for serving customers in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Subsidiary Southern Power owns 13 gigawatts of natural gas generation and renewable energy across the U.S. and sells the electricity primarily under long-term contracts.

In light of the recent options history for Southern, it's now appropriate to focus on the company itself. We aim to explore its current performance.

Current Position of Southern

• Currently trading with a volume of 1,919,082, the SO's price is up by 0.52%, now at $79.7.
• RSI readings suggest the stock is currently may be overbought.
• Anticipated earnings release is in 77 days.

What The Experts Say On Southern

4 market experts have recently issued ratings for this stock, with a consensus target price of $79.25.

• Maintaining their stance, an analyst from B of A Securities continues to hold a Neutral rating for Southern, targeting a price of $73.
• Consistent in their evaluation, an analyst from Wells Fargo keeps a Equal-Weight rating on Southern with a target price of $77.
• Maintaining their stance, an analyst from Scotiabank continues to hold a Sector Outperform rating for Southern, targeting a price of $77.
• An analyst from Argus Research has decided to maintain their Buy rating on Southern, which currently sits at a price target of $90.

Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock, but they have higher profit potential. Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily, scaling in and out of trades, following more than one indicator, and following the markets closely.

If you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Southern, Benzinga Pro gives you real-time options trades alerts.