The Southern Company (SO)
- Previous Close
69.80 - Open
70.00 - Bid --
- Ask --
- Day's Range
69.43 - 70.69 - 52 Week Range
61.56 - 75.80 - Volume
4,601,056 - Avg. Volume
4,788,443 - Market Cap (intraday)
77.248B - Beta (5Y Monthly) 0.49
- PE Ratio (TTM)
19.49 - EPS (TTM)
3.62 - Earnings Date May 2, 2024
- Forward Dividend & Yield 2.80 (3.97%)
- Ex-Dividend Date Feb 16, 2024
- 1y Target Est
75.17
The Southern Company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. The company also develops, constructs, acquires, owns, and manages power generation assets, including renewable energy projects and sells electricity in the wholesale market; and distributes natural gas in Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee, as well as provides gas marketing services, gas distribution operations, and gas pipeline investments operations. In addition, it owns and operates nuclear, coal, hydro, cogeneration, solar, wind, battery storage, and fuel cell facilities. Further, the constructs, operates, and maintains approximately 77,900 miles of natural gas pipelines and 14 storage facilities with total capacity of 157 Bcf to provide natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The company serves approximately 8.9 million electric and gas utility customers. Further, it develops distributed energy and resilience solutions; deploys microgrids for commercial, industrial, governmental, and utility customers; and offers digital wireless communications and fiber optics services. The Southern Company was incorporated in 1945 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
www.southerncompany.com27,819
Full Time Employees
December 31
Fiscal Year Ends
Sector
Utilities - Regulated Electric
Industry
Recent News: SO
Performance Overview: SO
Trailing total returns as of 4/18/2024, which may include dividends or other distributions. Benchmark is .
YTD Return
1-Year Return
3-Year Return
5-Year Return
Compare To: SO
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Statistics: SO
Valuation Measures
Market Cap
77.25B
Enterprise Value
139.99B
Trailing P/E
19.49
Forward P/E
17.57
PEG Ratio (5yr expected)
2.66
Price/Sales (ttm)
3.07
Price/Book (mrq)
2.46
Enterprise Value/Revenue
5.54
Enterprise Value/EBITDA
11.89
Financial Highlights
Profitability and Income Statement
Profit Margin
15.75%
Return on Assets (ttm)
2.93%
Return on Equity (ttm)
11.03%
Revenue (ttm)
25.25B
Net Income Avi to Common (ttm)
3.98B
Diluted EPS (ttm)
3.62
Balance Sheet and Cash Flow
Total Cash (mrq)
748M
Total Debt/Equity (mrq)
180.78%
Levered Free Cash Flow (ttm)
-2.91B
Research Analysis: SO
Analyst Price Targets
Fair Value
Analyst Recommendations
- Strong Buy
- Buy
- Hold
- Underperform
- Sell
Earnings
Research Reports: SO
Analyst Report: The Southern Company
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.
RatingNeutralPrice TargetThe Argus High-Yield Model Portfolio
Value stocks -- a market segment that includes high-yield stocks -- outperformed growth stocks in 2022. That's a recent rarity, as for the past decade-plus, the performance record has favored growth. But the tide turned in 2022. The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines gave a lift to some of the cyclical companies (energy and regional banks) that had lagged in recent quarters, and value stocks outpaced growth stocks that year. While growth stocks have retaken the lead since 2023, the Federal Reserve continues to keep interest rates high to fend off inflation. This could possibly cap multiple expansion for growth companies in coming quarters. In any event, the value sector is the place to achieve income.
Analyst Report: Southern Company
Southern Company is an electric and gas utility and wholesaler with 9 million customers and 41,000 megawatts of generating capacity. Its gas subsidiary also provides distribution and wholesale gas services. In 2023, retail electricity accounted for about 65% of total revenue while natural gas sales accounted for just under 20%. Southern's electrical customer bases is evenly balanced with commercial, industrial and residential customers each representing about one-third of retail sales. The company is based in Atlanta and provides natural gas to customers in Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee, and owns regulated electric utilities in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Its largest utility, Georgia Power, accounted for about 40% of 2023 revenue. The company also offers digital wireless and fiber-optic services. SO's 2023 fuel mix is 52% gas, 17% coal, 17% nuclear, and 14% renewables. It is working to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, later than peers without coal generation. The fuel mix will change once the company adds the last of its new nuclear reactors to its three existing nuclear units at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia. The company has faced rising costs and pandemic delays with these reactors - the first U.S. nuclear units built in the last 30 years. Vogtle 3 became operational in July 2023 and Vogtle 4 is expected to enter service in early 1Q24. Southern announced in Mid-February that the final reactor was in last-stage critical testing. The company also faced setbacks with its now written-off Kemper County 'clean-coal' plant, which resulted in more than $5.0 billion in cost overruns and damaged its reputation. In 2016, Southern Company Gas acquired AGL Resources' gas infrastructure and LNG operations. SO shares are a component of the S&P 500. The company's market cap is $73.6 billion.
RatingBullishPrice TargetMarket Update: PRU, SO, WMT, VRSK
Stocks are trading lower on Wednesday morning ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve minutes. Turning to stocks, shares of Nvidia (NVDA) are down today, with the company reporting earnings today after market close. The S&P 500 fell 0.1%, the Dow was down $0.2% and the Nasdaq lost 0.5%. Crude oil traded near $77.50 per barrel, while gold fell nearly $4 to $2036 per ounce.