Southern (SO) Competitors

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

Which has more volatility and risk, SO or NEE?

Southern has a beta of 0.4, meaning that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NextEra Energy has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, 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	3.50	$3.98B	$4.19	21.19
NextEra Energy	$25.27B	5.34	$6.95B	$2.67	24.56

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of SO or NEE?

64.1% of Southern shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.7% of NextEra Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Southern shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of NextEra Energy shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer SO or NEE?

In the previous week, NextEra Energy had 2 more articles in the media than Southern. MarketBeat recorded 40 mentions for NextEra Energy and 38 mentions for Southern. NextEra Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.51 beat Southern's score of 1.32 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	26 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
NextEra Energy	34 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer SO or NEE?

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.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Southern	Outperform Votes 536 49.26%	Underperform Votes 552 50.74%
NextEra Energy	Outperform Votes 783 71.57%	Underperform Votes 311 28.43%

Do analysts rate SO or NEE?

Southern currently has a consensus price target of $92.21, indicating a potential upside of 3.87%. NextEra Energy has a consensus price target of $83.46, indicating a potential upside of 27.30%. 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)	10 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20
NextEra Energy	0 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.47

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 3.4%. 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.

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%

Summary

NextEra Energy beats Southern on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.