Southern (SO) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an Atlanta-based energy holding company that provides electric and gas utility services and owns power generation assets across the United States. Founded in 1945, the company operates a portfolio of regulated electric utilities and affiliated businesses that generate, transmit and distribute electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Southern’s principal regulated electric subsidiaries include Georgia Power, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power, which serve large portions of the southeastern United States. The company also conducts wholesale and competitive generation through Southern Power and provides natural gas distribution and related services via Southern Company Gas. Its generation mix includes conventional thermal plants, nuclear facilities and a growing fleet of renewable energy projects such as utility-scale solar and wind.

The company is involved in major infrastructure and grid modernization initiatives, including investments in transmission upgrades, distributed energy resources, energy efficiency programs and technologies to support reliability and decarbonization. Southern Company’s operations encompass both regulated utility service and competitive energy businesses, enabling it to serve retail customers, wholesale markets and industrial clients.

Listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SO, Southern Company is a prominent energy provider in the southeastern U.S. and is actively pursuing strategies to adapt its generation portfolio and grid capabilities to evolving regulatory and market demands related to clean energy and resilience.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $95.73 to $96.87
• 50-Day Range: $91.81 to $99.10
• 52-Week Range: $83.09 to $100.83
• Volume: 8.32 million shs
• Average Volume: 4.52 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $108.09 billion
• P/E Ratio: 24.40
• Dividend Yield: 3.09%
• Price Target: $99.85
• Consensus Rating: Hold

Southern Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Southern scored higher than 73% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 50th out of 92 stocks in the utilities sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 2.5 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Hold

Consensus Rating

Southern has received a consensus rating of Hold. The company's average rating score is 2.30, and is based on no strong buy ratings, 7 buy ratings, 12 hold ratings, and 1 sell rating.

Upside/Downside

The consensus price target for Southern is close to its current price, suggesting limited near-term upside or downside.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Southern has been the subject of 14 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 7.66%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Southern are expected to grow by 7.66% in the coming year, from $4.57 to $4.92 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Southern is 24.40, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 38.28.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Southern is 24.40, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the Utilities sector average P/E ratio of about 22.28.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Southern has a PEG Ratio of 2.90. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Southern has a P/B Ratio of 2.71. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: N/A
• Short Interest Level: N/A

Short Interest

There is no current short interest data available for SO.

Dividend

• Score: 3.3 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Yield

Southern pays a meaningful dividend of 3.08%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

Southern has been increasing its dividend for 25 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Southern is 75.32%. Payout ratios above 75% are not desirable because they may not be sustainable.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, Southern will have a dividend payout ratio of 60.16% next year. This indicates that Southern will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

News and Social Media

• Score: 3.8 / 5
• News Sentiment: 1.03

News Sentiment

Southern has a news sentiment score of 1.03. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.72 average news sentiment score of Utilities companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 28 news articles for Southern this week, compared to 6 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

Only 23 people have searched for SO on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -56% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

18 people have added Southern to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 20% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.4 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Southern insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $3,060,642.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

0.16% of the stock of Southern is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

64.10% of the stock of Southern is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

SO Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have SO shares performed this year?

Southern's stock was trading at $87.23 at the beginning of 2026. Since then, SO stock has increased by 9.9% and is now trading at $95.8820.

How were Southern's earnings last quarter?

Southern Company (The) (NYSE:SO) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April, 30th. The utilities provider reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.21 by $0.11. Southern's revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis.
Read the conference call transcript.

Does Southern have any subsidiaries?

The following companies are subsidiaries of Southern: Mankato Energy Center LLC, PowerSecure International Inc, AGL Resources, Adobe Solar LLC, Alabama Power, Alabama Power Capital Trust V, Alabama Property Company, and others.

Who are Southern's major shareholders?

Southern's top institutional investors include Bank of New York Mellon Corp (0.65%), Pictet Asset Management Holding SA (0.38%), Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. (0.22%) and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS (0.17%). Insiders that own company stock include Thomas A Fanning, James Y Kerr II, Stephen E Kuczynski, Kimberly S Greene, Martin Bernard Davis, Anthony L Wilson, Bryan D Anderson, Christopher Cummiskey, David P Poroch, Sloane N Drake, James Jeffrey Peoples and Sterling A Jr Spainhour.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of Southern?

Shares of SO stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.

What other stocks do shareholders of Southern own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Southern investors own include Chevron (CVX), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Comcast (CMCSA), Charles Schwab (SCHW), McKesson (MCK), Edwards Lifesciences (EW) and Yum! Brands (YUM).

Company Calendar

• Record date for 3/6 Dividend: 2/17/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 3/6 Dividend: 2/17/2026
• Dividend Payable: 3/06/2026
• Last Earnings: 4/30/2026
• Today: 5/06/2026
• AGM 2026: 5/13/2026
• Record date for 6/8 Dividend: 5/18/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 6/8 Dividend: 5/18/2026
• Dividend Payable: 6/08/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Utilities
• Industry: UTIL - ELEC PWR
• Sub-Industry: Electric Utilities
• Current Symbol: NYSE:SO
• CIK: 92122
• Web: www.southerncompany.com
• Phone: (404) 506-5000
• Fax: 404-506-0344
• Employees: 29,800
• Year Founded: 1945

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Southern: $99.85
• High Price Target: $112.00
• Low Price Target: $76.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +4.1%
• Consensus Rating: Hold
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.30
• Research Coverage: 20 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $3.93
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 24.40
• Forward P/E Ratio: 20.98
• P/E Growth: 2.9
• Net Income: $4.34 billion
• Net Margins: 14.46%
• Pretax Margin: 16.62%
• Return on Equity: 12.64%
• Return on Assets: 3.17%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 1.68
• Current Ratio: 0.65
• Quick Ratio: 0.45

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $29.55 billion
• Price / Sales: 3.66
• Cash Flow: $9.77 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 9.81
• Book Value: $35.40 per share
• Price / Book: 2.71

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 1,127,300,000
• Free Float: 1,125,497,000
• Market Cap: $108.09 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.36