Entergy (ETR) Competitors

Southern (NYSE:SO) and Entergy (NYSE:ETR) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, community ranking, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and media sentiment.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, SO or ETR?

Southern has higher revenue and earnings than Entergy. Southern is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Entergy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Southern	$26.72B	3.71	$3.98B	$4.01	22.55
Entergy	$11.88B	3.08	$2.36B	$2.43	34.98

Is SO or ETR more profitable?

Southern has a net margin of 16.47% compared to Entergy's net margin of 8.90%. Southern's return on equity of 12.23% beat Entergy's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern	16.47%	12.23%	3.11%
Entergy	8.90%	10.68%	2.49%

Which has more volatility & risk, SO or ETR?

Southern has a beta of 0.46, meaning that its share price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Entergy has a beta of 0.68, meaning that its share price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders believe in SO or ETR?

64.1% of Southern shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.1% of Entergy shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Southern shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Entergy shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is SO or ETR a better dividend stock?

Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Entergy pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Southern pays out 71.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Entergy pays out 98.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Southern has raised its dividend for 24 consecutive years. Southern is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do analysts recommend SO or ETR?

Southern currently has a consensus price target of $90.54, suggesting a potential upside of 0.11%. Entergy has a consensus price target of $84.11, suggesting a potential downside of 1.05%. Given Southern's higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Southern is more favorable than Entergy.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Southern	1 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.21
Entergy	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.73

Does the MarketBeat Community favor SO or ETR?

Southern received 69 more outperform votes than Entergy when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 49.68% of users gave Entergy an outperform vote while only 49.58% of users gave Southern an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Southern	Outperform Votes 535 49.58%	Underperform Votes 544 50.42%
Entergy	Outperform Votes 466 49.68%	Underperform Votes 472 50.32%

Does the media prefer SO or ETR?

In the previous week, Southern had 3 more articles in the media than Entergy. MarketBeat recorded 44 mentions for Southern and 41 mentions for Entergy. Southern's average media sentiment score of 1.41 beat Entergy's score of 1.23 indicating that Southern is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Southern	37 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Entergy	30 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Southern beats Entergy on 14 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.