SO vs. EIX, ETR, FE, NEE, AEP, D, VST, DTE, DUK, and NGG
Should you be buying Southern stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Southern include Edison International (EIX), Entergy (ETR), FirstEnergy (FE), NextEra Energy (NEE), American Electric Power (AEP), Dominion Energy (D), Vistra (VST), DTE Energy (DTE), Duke Energy (DUK), and National Grid (NGG). These companies are all part of the "utilities" sector.
Southern (NYSE:SO) and Edison International (NYSE:EIX) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, media sentiment, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, community ranking and valuation.
Southern has a net margin of 16.74% compared to Edison International's net margin of 6.14%. Edison International's return on equity of 12.48% beat Southern's return on equity.
Southern has a beta of 0.48, meaning that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Edison International has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Edison International pays an annual dividend of $3.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. Southern pays out 74.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Edison International pays out 136.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.
64.1% of Southern shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.9% of Edison International shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Southern shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Edison International shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Southern had 1 more articles in the media than Edison International. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for Southern and 24 mentions for Edison International. Southern's average media sentiment score of 0.94 beat Edison International's score of 0.91 indicating that Southern is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Southern has higher revenue and earnings than Edison International. Southern is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Edison International, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Southern currently has a consensus price target of $75.73, indicating a potential downside of 4.79%. Edison International has a consensus price target of $76.00, indicating a potential downside of 0.39%. Given Edison International's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Edison International is more favorable than Southern.
Edison International received 219 more outperform votes than Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.25% of users gave Edison International an outperform vote while only 50.05% of users gave Southern an outperform vote.
Summary
Southern beats Edison International on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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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.
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