NextEra Energy (NEE) Competitors

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

Do analysts prefer SO or NEE?

Southern currently has a consensus price target of $92.64, indicating a potential upside of 2.65%. NextEra Energy has a consensus price target of $84.50, indicating a potential upside of 14.47%. Given NextEra Energy's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe NextEra Energy is more favorable than Southern.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Southern	1 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.27
NextEra Energy	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.53

Is SO or NEE more profitable?

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.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern	16.47%	12.23%	3.11%
NextEra Energy	28.06%	11.85%	3.81%

Do insiders and institutionals believe in SO or NEE?

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 insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of NextEra Energy shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is SO or NEE a better dividend stock?

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 3.1%. 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 raised its dividend for 25 consecutive years and NextEra Energy has raised its dividend for 31 consecutive years. Southern is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in SO or NEE?

NextEra Energy received 247 more outperform votes than Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.60% of users gave NextEra Energy an outperform vote while only 49.31% of users gave Southern an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Southern	Outperform Votes 537 49.31%	Underperform Votes 552 50.69%
NextEra Energy	Outperform Votes 784 71.60%	Underperform Votes 311 28.40%

Which has better valuation & earnings, SO or NEE?

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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Southern	$27.85B	3.56	$3.98B	$4.19	21.54
NextEra Energy	$25.27B	6.01	$6.95B	$2.67	27.65

Does the media prefer SO or NEE?

In the previous week, NextEra Energy had 25 more articles in the media than Southern. MarketBeat recorded 39 mentions for NextEra Energy and 14 mentions for Southern. NextEra Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.58 beat Southern's score of 1.29 indicating that NextEra Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Southern	11 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
NextEra Energy	37 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Which has more volatility and risk, SO or NEE?

Southern has a beta of 0.38, meaning that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NextEra Energy has a beta of 0.68, meaning that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

NextEra Energy beats Southern on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.