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 contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, dividends, community ranking, earnings, profitability, risk and institutional ownership.

Is SO or NEE a better dividend stock?

Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. NextEra Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Southern pays out 67.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NextEra Energy pays out 60.9% 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. Southern has raised its dividend for 24 consecutive years and NextEra Energy has raised its dividend for 30 consecutive years.

Do analysts rate SO or NEE?

Southern currently has a consensus target price of $89.27, suggesting a potential upside of 1.52%. NextEra Energy has a consensus target price of $86.54, suggesting a potential upside of 13.34%. Given NextEra Energy's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly 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)	8 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.38
NextEra Energy	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Which has more volatility & risk, SO or NEE?

Southern has a beta of 0.52, meaning that its stock price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NextEra Energy has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is SO or NEE more profitable?

NextEra Energy has a net margin of 26.49% compared to Southern's net margin of 17.87%. Southern's return on equity of 12.78% beat NextEra Energy's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern	17.87%	12.78%	3.25%
NextEra Energy	26.49%	11.94%	3.86%

Does the MarketBeat Community favor SO or NEE?

NextEra Energy received 238 more outperform votes than Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.75% of users gave NextEra Energy an outperform vote while only 49.67% of users gave Southern an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Southern	Outperform Votes 534 49.67%	Underperform Votes 541 50.33%
NextEra Energy	Outperform Votes 772 71.75%	Underperform Votes 304 28.25%

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, SO or NEE?

NextEra Energy has higher revenue and 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	$25.25B	3.82	$3.98B	$4.30	20.45
NextEra Energy	$28.11B	5.58	$7.31B	$3.38	22.59

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in 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 endowments, hedge funds 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 14 more articles in the media than Southern. MarketBeat recorded 38 mentions for NextEra Energy and 24 mentions for Southern. Southern's average media sentiment score of 1.61 beat NextEra Energy's score of 1.54 indicating that Southern is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Southern	23 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
NextEra Energy	35 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Summary

NextEra Energy beats Southern on 15 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.