SO vs. NEE, DUK, EIX, ETR, FE, ES, PPL, PNW, OGE, and IDA
Should you be buying Southern stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Southern include NextEra Energy (NEE), Duke Energy (DUK), Edison International (EIX), Entergy (ETR), FirstEnergy (FE), Eversource Energy (ES), PPL (PPL), Pinnacle West Capital (PNW), OGE Energy (OGE), and IDACORP (IDA). These companies are all part of the "electric utilities" industry.
NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) and Southern (NYSE:SO) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends, community ranking and institutional ownership.
NextEra Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. NextEra Energy pays out 56.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Southern pays out 74.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. NextEra Energy has raised its dividend for 30 consecutive years and Southern has raised its dividend for 24 consecutive years.
NextEra Energy has a beta of 0.54, meaning that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southern has a beta of 0.51, meaning that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500.
NextEra Energy presently has a consensus price target of $78.00, suggesting a potential upside of 5.05%. Southern has a consensus price target of $76.50, suggesting a potential downside of 6.91%. Given Southern's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe NextEra Energy is more favorable than Southern.
78.7% of NextEra Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.1% of Southern shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of NextEra Energy shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Southern shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
NextEra Energy has a net margin of 24.45% compared to NextEra Energy's net margin of 16.74%. NextEra Energy's return on equity of 12.07% beat Southern's return on equity.
NextEra Energy received 237 more outperform votes than Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.03% of users gave NextEra Energy an outperform vote while only 49.86% of users gave Southern an outperform vote.
In the previous week, NextEra Energy had 43 more articles in the media than Southern. MarketBeat recorded 60 mentions for NextEra Energy and 17 mentions for Southern. Southern's average media sentiment score of 0.96 beat NextEra Energy's score of 0.94 indicating that NextEra Energy is being referred to more favorably in the media.
NextEra Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Southern. NextEra Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southern, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
NextEra Energy beats Southern on 16 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get Southern News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for SO and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
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.
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
Related Companies and Tools
Free SO Stock Alerts