The latest disclosures show that President Donald Trump loaded up on Southern Company (NYSE:SO) and Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) in July, filed on September 22. Both trades were pure buys, with no sell activity on either name anywhere in the filing.
Insider Monkey’s proprietary database of billionaire-held stocks tells a different story. On a net basis, billionaire-led funds were pulling back from both stocks during the same stretch that Trump was buying in.
Southern Company saw 17 billionaire-led funds hold stakes as of the end of the second quarter, down from 22 in the quarter prior. The combined dollar value of those stakes fell from about $1.08 billion in the first quarter to roughly $624 million in the second quarter. In the last quarter of 2025, 21 billionaire-led funds held a position in the stock.
Don’t Miss: Southern Company (SO): A New AI Data Center Play For Long-Term Investors?
Public Storage followed a similar pattern. A total of 14 billionaire-led funds had stakes in the company as of the end of the second quarter, down from 15 in the quarter prior. In the last quarter of 2025, 17 billionaire-led funds held a position in the stock.
In its second-quarter 2026 investor letter, Baron Real Estate Income Fund explained why it’s turning bullish on PSA. Read the full letter here.
In this article, we will focus on SO.
Southern Company has years of contracted growth ahead because data center customers have signed long deals that pay the company whether or not they use all the power. It has more than 17 gigawatts of contracted large load across 31 projects. Collateral backs the contracts, and termination payments apply if a customer walks away. OpenAI’s 25-year deal for a site near Savannah is one of them.
The stock trades 17.8% below its 52-week high, at a forward P/E of 18.06 against 22.12 a year ago. The dividend yield is 3.67%, the highest in over a year, and the company has raised the payout for more than two decades.
Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash
Bear case
Debt and interest rates are the biggest risk. The Fed raised rates on September 16 for the first time since 2023, the dot plot points to another hike this year, and the 10-year Treasury yield is above 5%. The company already carries a very large debt balance and plans to issue much more through 2028. Regulators let utilities pass higher borrowing costs into rates, but with a time lag, and recovery is not guaranteed. Free cash flow is negative and will stay that way while the capital plan runs.
A slowdown in AI spending could also hurt Southern Company. The signed data center deals are protected by minimum bills, but if tech giants pull back, many of the possible customers may never sign, and growth could come in below what analysts expect.
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