Southern Co. (SO) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
Southern Co. (SO) closed at $72.19 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.75% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.75%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.05%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 7.84%.
Heading into today, shares of the power company had gained 5.93% over the past month, outpacing the Utilities sector's gain of 0.44% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.4% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Southern Co. as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Southern Co. is projected to report earnings of $0.24 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 33.33%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $6.04 billion, up 4.67% from the prior-year quarter.
SO's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.58 per share and revenue of $27.09 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +4.99% and +17.21%, respectively.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Southern Co.These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.41% lower. Southern Co. is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
In terms of valuation, Southern Co. is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 20. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.41.
Investors should also note that SO has a PEG ratio of 5 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. SO's industry had an average PEG ratio of 3.22 as of yesterday's close.
The Utility - Electric Power industry is part of the Utilities sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 89, putting it in the top 36% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Southern Company The (SO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
