Southern Co. (SO) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Southern Co. (SO) closed at $47.01, marking a -1.16% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.54% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.64%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.95%.
Heading into today, shares of the power company had gained 0.61% over the past month, lagging the Utilities sector's gain of 2.44% and outpacing the S&P 500's loss of 4.97% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from SO as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 20, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.22, down 56.86% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $5.35 billion, down 4.88% from the year-ago period.
SO's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.03 per share and revenue of $23.21 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +0.33% and +0.76%, respectively.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for SO should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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 0.04% lower within the past month. SO is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, SO currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 15.7. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 19.16, so we one might conclude that SO is trading at a discount comparatively.
Also, we should mention that SO has a PEG ratio of 3.49. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Utility - Electric Power industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 3.53 as of yesterday's close.
The Utility - Electric Power industry is part of the Utilities sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 106, putting it in the top 41% 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.
Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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