Southern (SO) Competitors

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

Do institutionals & insiders believe in NEE or SO?

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

Which has more volatility and risk, NEE or SO?

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

Do analysts recommend NEE or SO?

NextEra Energy presently has a consensus target price of $86.54, suggesting a potential upside of 12.58%. Southern has a consensus target price of $89.27, suggesting a potential upside of 1.47%. Given NextEra Energy's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe NextEra Energy is more favorable than Southern.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NextEra Energy	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Southern	1 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.38

Does the media prefer NEE or SO?

In the previous week, NextEra Energy had 15 more articles in the media than Southern. MarketBeat recorded 37 mentions for NextEra Energy and 22 mentions for Southern. NextEra Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.53 beat Southern's score of 1.53 indicating that NextEra Energy is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
NextEra Energy	36 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Southern	20 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Is NEE or SO 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
NextEra Energy	26.49%	11.94%	3.86%
Southern	17.87%	12.78%	3.25%

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, NEE or SO?

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
NextEra Energy	$28.11B	5.62	$7.31B	$3.38	22.74
Southern	$25.25B	3.82	$3.98B	$4.30	20.46

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer NEE or SO?

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

Is NEE or SO a better dividend stock?

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

Summary

NextEra Energy beats Southern on 16 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.