Southern (SO) Expected to Announce Quarterly Earnings on Thursday

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) is expected to be posting its Q1 2025 quarterly earnings results before the market opens on Thursday, May 1st. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $1.17 per share and revenue of $7.17 billion for the quarter. Southern has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.200-4.300 EPS and its Q1 2025 guidance at 1.200-1.200 EPS.

Southern (NYSE:SO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). Southern had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 12.23%. The business had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.90 billion. On average, analysts expect Southern to post $4 EPS for the current fiscal year and $5 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Southern Price Performance

NYSE SO traded up $0.44 on Tuesday, hitting $91.19. 507,122 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,455,238. Southern has a 52 week low of $73.20 and a 52 week high of $94.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $89.87 and a 200-day moving average of $87.35. The stock has a market cap of $100.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.39.

Southern Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.25%. This is a positive change from Southern's previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Southern's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.82%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on SO. Mizuho raised their price objective on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Southern from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $94.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Southern from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays increased their target price on Southern from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim downgraded shares of Southern from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southern has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $92.54.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,125 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.61, for a total transaction of $100,811.25. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,090 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,148,284.90. The trade was a 1.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total value of $1,250,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 13,236 shares in the company, valued at $1,138,296. This represents a 52.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 47,855 shares of company stock worth $4,348,784. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Southern

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.