Southern Co. (SO) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know
Southern Co. (SO) closed the most recent trading day at $64.81, moving +1.79% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.62%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.17%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 12.91%.
Coming into today, shares of the power company had lost 7.21% in the past month. In that same time, the Utilities sector lost 5.67%, while the S&P 500 lost 4.54%.
Investors will be hoping for strength from Southern Co. as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Southern Co. is projected to report earnings of $0.79 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 18.56%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $6.88 billion, up 3.46% from the prior-year quarter.
SO's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.62 per share and revenue of $29.27 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +0.56% and -0.04%, respectively.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Southern Co.These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.45% lower within the past month. Southern Co. is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Looking at its valuation, Southern Co. is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 17.6. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 16.81, which means Southern Co. is trading at a premium to the group.
We can also see that SO currently has a PEG ratio of 4.4. 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. Utility - Electric Power stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.91 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Utility - Electric Power industry is part of the Utilities sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 107, which puts it in the top 43% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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
