NEE vs. SO, DUK, ETR, PPL, FE, ES, EIX, PNW, OGE, and IDA
Should you be buying NextEra Energy stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of NextEra Energy include Southern (SO), Duke Energy (DUK), Entergy (ETR), PPL (PPL), FirstEnergy (FE), Eversource Energy (ES), Edison International (EIX), Pinnacle West Capital (PNW), OGE Energy (OGE), and IDACORP (IDA). These companies are all part of the "electric utilities" industry.
NextEra Energy vs.
Southern (NYSE:SO) and NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, media sentiment, earnings, profitability, valuation, community ranking, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and risk.
NextEra Energy received 247 more outperform votes than Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.57% of users gave NextEra Energy an outperform vote while only 49.26% of users gave Southern an outperform vote.
In the previous week, NextEra Energy had 6 more articles in the media than Southern. MarketBeat recorded 43 mentions for NextEra Energy and 37 mentions for Southern. NextEra Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.53 beat Southern's score of 1.38 indicating that NextEra Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
NextEra Energy has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Southern. Southern is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NextEra Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Southern presently has a consensus price target of $92.21, suggesting a potential upside of 3.84%. NextEra Energy has a consensus price target of $83.46, suggesting a potential upside of 24.72%. Given NextEra Energy's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe NextEra Energy is more favorable than Southern.
Southern has a beta of 0.4, indicating that its stock price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NextEra Energy has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. NextEra Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Southern pays out 70.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NextEra Energy pays out 84.6% 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 increased its dividend for 25 consecutive years and NextEra Energy has increased its dividend for 31 consecutive years. NextEra Energy is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
NextEra Energy has a net margin of 28.06% compared to Southern's net margin of 16.47%. Southern's return on equity of 12.23% beat NextEra Energy's return on equity.
64.1% of Southern shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.7% of NextEra Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Southern shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of NextEra Energy shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
NextEra Energy beats Southern on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
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This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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This page (NYSE:NEE) was last updated on 5/23/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff