SO vs. ES, EIX, FE, ETR, PPL, NEE, D, AEP, DTE, and FTS
Should you be buying Southern stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Southern include Eversource Energy (ES), Edison International (EIX), FirstEnergy (FE), Entergy (ETR), PPL (PPL), NextEra Energy (NEE), Dominion Energy (D), American Electric Power (AEP), DTE Energy (DTE), and Fortis (FTS). These companies are all part of the "electric services" industry.
Southern vs.
Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) and Southern (NYSE:SO) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, dividends, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability and community ranking.
Eversource Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.55 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Eversource Energy pays out 63.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Southern pays out 86.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Eversource Energy has increased its dividend for 24 consecutive years and Southern has increased its dividend for 21 consecutive years.
77.4% of Eversource Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.8% of Southern shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Eversource Energy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Southern shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Eversource Energy currently has a consensus price target of $89.50, suggesting a potential upside of 10.93%. Southern has a consensus price target of $71.85, suggesting a potential upside of 6.06%. Given Eversource Energy's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Eversource Energy is more favorable than Southern.
In the previous week, Southern had 2 more articles in the media than Eversource Energy. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Southern and 7 mentions for Eversource Energy. Eversource Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.52 beat Southern's score of -0.50 indicating that Eversource Energy is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Southern has a net margin of 12.52% compared to Eversource Energy's net margin of 11.85%. Southern's return on equity of 12.21% beat Eversource Energy's return on equity.
Southern has higher revenue and earnings than Eversource Energy. Eversource Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southern, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Southern received 60 more outperform votes than Eversource Energy when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 51.46% of users gave Southern an outperform vote while only 50.00% of users gave Eversource Energy an outperform vote.
Eversource Energy has a beta of 0.46, indicating that its stock price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southern has a beta of 0.48, indicating that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Southern beats Eversource Energy on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding SO and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
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.
Southern Competitors List
