Southern Co. (SO) closed the most recent trading day at $91.95, moving +0.9% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.55%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.01%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.14%.
Heading into today, shares of the power company had gained 1.49% over the past month, outpacing the Utilities sector's gain of 0.69% and the S&P 500's loss of 6.22% in that time.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Southern Co. in its upcoming release. The company plans to announce its earnings on May 1, 2025. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $1.17, indicating a 13.59% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $6.93 billion, indicating a 4.3% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
SO's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.30 per share and revenue of $27.43 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +6.17% and +2.63%, respectively.
Furthermore, it would be beneficial for investors to monitor any recent shifts in analyst projections for Southern Co. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.12% fall in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. As of now, Southern Co. holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, Southern Co. is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 21.19. This signifies a premium in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 18.25 for its industry.
Meanwhile, SO's PEG ratio is currently 3.27. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. The Utility - Electric Power industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.78 as trading concluded yesterday.
The Utility - Electric Power industry is part of the Utilities sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 58, positioning it in the top 24% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.
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Southern Company (The) (SO): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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