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

Do insiders & 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 large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Does the media refer more to SO or NEE?

In the previous week, NextEra Energy had 37 more articles in the media than Southern. MarketBeat recorded 54 mentions for NextEra Energy and 17 mentions for Southern. NextEra Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.53 beat Southern's score of 1.32 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	15 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
NextEra Energy	50 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in SO or NEE?

NextEra Energy received 239 more outperform votes than Southern when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.80% of users gave NextEra Energy an outperform vote while only 49.68% of users gave Southern an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Southern	Outperform Votes 535 49.68%	Underperform Votes 542 50.32%
NextEra Energy	Outperform Votes 774 71.80%	Underperform Votes 304 28.20%

Which has more risk & volatility, SO or NEE?

Southern has a beta of 0.52, meaning that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NextEra Energy has a beta of 0.58, meaning that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is SO or NEE a better dividend stock?

Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. NextEra Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. 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 increased its dividend for 24 consecutive years and NextEra Energy has increased its dividend for 30 consecutive years.

Do analysts rate SO or NEE?

Southern presently has a consensus price target of $90.14, suggesting a potential upside of 7.42%. NextEra Energy has a consensus price target of $87.15, suggesting a potential upside of 23.04%. Given NextEra Energy's stronger consensus rating and higher probable 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)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
NextEra Energy	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Which has higher 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	3.64	$3.98B	$4.30	19.52
NextEra Energy	$28.11B	5.18	$7.31B	$3.38	20.96

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%

Summary

NextEra Energy beats Southern on 17 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.