Southern (SO) Competitors

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

Which has more volatility and risk, SO or NEE?

Southern has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NextEra Energy has a beta of 0.58, suggesting that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor SO or NEE?

NextEra Energy received 243 more outperform votes than Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.67% of users gave NextEra Energy an outperform vote while only 49.49% of users gave Southern an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Southern	Outperform Votes 536 49.49%	Underperform Votes 547 50.51%
NextEra Energy	Outperform Votes 779 71.67%	Underperform Votes 308 28.33%

Is SO or NEE more profitable?

NextEra Energy has a net margin of 28.06% compared to Southern's net margin of 16.47%. Southern's return on equity of 12.23% beat NextEra Energy's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern	16.47%	12.23%	3.11%
NextEra Energy	28.06%	11.85%	3.81%

Is SO or NEE a better dividend stock?

Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. NextEra Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Southern pays out 71.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. NextEra Energy pays out 67.1% 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 increased its dividend for 24 consecutive years and NextEra Energy has increased its dividend for 31 consecutive years. NextEra Energy is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do insiders and institutionals believe 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 insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of NextEra Energy shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer SO or NEE?

In the previous week, NextEra Energy had 12 more articles in the media than Southern. MarketBeat recorded 47 mentions for NextEra Energy and 35 mentions for Southern. NextEra Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.40 beat Southern's score of 1.20 indicating that NextEra Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Southern	22 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
NextEra Energy	34 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts recommend SO or NEE?

Southern currently has a consensus price target of $92.00, indicating a potential upside of 1.13%. NextEra Energy has a consensus price target of $85.38, indicating a potential upside of 26.32%. 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	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.36
NextEra Energy	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Which has higher valuation and earnings, SO or NEE?

NextEra Energy has lower revenue, but higher 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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Southern	$26.72B	3.73	$3.98B	$4.01	22.69
NextEra Energy	$24.75B	5.62	$6.95B	$3.37	20.06

Summary

NextEra Energy beats Southern on 16 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.