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: $93.77 to $94.80
• 50-Day Range: $91.80 to $99.10
• 52-Week Range: $83.80 to $100.83
• Volume: 3.40 million shs
• Average Volume: 5.67 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $106.72 billion
• P/E Ratio: 24.09
• Dividend Yield: 3.21%
• Price Target: $99.56
• Consensus Rating: Hold

Southern Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Southern scored higher than 81% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 31st out of 94 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: 2.6 / 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 10 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 24.09, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 44.79.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Southern is 24.09, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the Utilities sector average P/E ratio of about 20.43.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Southern has a PEG Ratio of 2.86. 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 2.67. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 3.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

2.19% of the float of Southern has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Southern has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 5.85.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Southern has recently decreased by 1.93%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving.

Dividend

• Score: 3.3 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Yield

Southern pays a meaningful dividend of 3.22%, 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 77.35%. 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 61.79% next year. This indicates that Southern will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

News and Social Media

• Score: 4.0 / 5
• News Sentiment: 1.34

News Sentiment

Southern has a news sentiment score of 1.34. 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 0.64 average news sentiment score of Utilities companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 15 news articles for Southern this week, compared to 6 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

Only 18 people have searched for SO on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -54% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

14 people have added Southern to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 17% 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.

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: 4/29/2026
• Record date for 6/8 Dividend: 5/18/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 6/8 Dividend: 5/18/2026
• Today: 5/24/2026
• Dividend Payable: 6/08/2026
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 7/30/2026
• 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: $99.56
• High Price Target: $112.00
• Low Price Target: $76.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +5.2%
• Consensus Rating: Hold
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.30
• Research Coverage: 20 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $3.93
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 24.09
• Forward P/E Ratio: 20.72
• P/E Growth: 2.86
• 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: 3.61
• Cash Flow: $9.80 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 9.66
• Book Value: $35.40 per share
• Price / Book: 2.67

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 1,127,300,000
• Free Float: 1,125,497,000
• Market Cap: $106.72 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.36