Southern Company Q3 Earnings Top on Usage, New Customers

Power supplier The Southern Company SO reported third-quarter 2025 earnings per share (excluding certain one-time items) of $1.60, outperforming the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.50 and improving from the year-ago adjusted profit of $1.43. The encouraging numbers reflect investment in state-regulated utilities, along with usage and customer growth.

The utility reported revenues of $7.8 billion. The top line came in 7.6% higher than third-quarter 2024 sales and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $7.5 billion.

The firm guided earnings per share of $4.30 — at the top end of its projected range — and 54 cents for the December quarter. Further, Southern Company management stuck to its long-term EPS growth rate projection of 5-7%.

Southern Company (The) Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Southern Company (The) price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Southern Company (The) Quote

Overall Sales Breakup

Southern Company’s wholesale power sales edged up 0.8%, to go with a gain in retail electricity demand.

Overall, there was an uptick in electricity sales and usage. In fact, total electricity sales during the third quarter were up 1.1% from the same period last year.

Southern Company’s total retail sales also improved 1.1%, with industrial and commercial sales increasing 1.5% and 2.3%, respectively, while residential sales fell 0.3%.  

Expenses Summary

The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) power supplier’s operations and maintenance (O&M) cost fell 1.1% year over year to $1.6 billion. However, Southern Company’s total operating expense for the period — at $5.2 billion — increased 6.6% from the prior-year level and surpassed our estimate of $4.3 billion.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Some Key Utility Earnings

While we have discussed The Southern Company’s third-quarter results in detail, let’s see how some other utilities have fared this earnings season.
    
Exelon Corporation’s EXC EPS of 86 cents surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 76 cents by 13.2% and bettered the year-ago profit of 71 cents. The beat was due to distribution and transmission rates at ComEd and PHI, distribution rates at PECO and BGE, lower storm costs at PECO and BGE and some other factors.

In the reported quarter, Exelon served more customers than in the year-ago quarter. Consequently, total electric deliveries touched 66,273 gigawatt hours in the first nine months of 2025, up 3% from the year-ago period, primarily due to higher volumes sold to the entire customer group. Due to revenue decoupling, Exelon’s distribution earnings were not affected by actual weather or customer usage patterns.

American Water Works Company AWK posted EPS of $1.94, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.90 by 2.1%. The bottom line also improved 7.8% from the year-ago quarter's EPS of $1.80. American Water Works’ encouraging numbers were due to the implementation of new rates in the Regulated Businesses from the recovery of capital and acquisition investments.

Along with its third-quarter earnings release, American Water Works mentioned its recently signed merger agreement with Essential Utilities, Inc., which was announced on Oct. 27, 2025. This merger is projected to create a leading regulated U.S. water and wastewater public utility, with a pro forma enterprise value of approximately $63 billion.

IDACORP, Inc. IDA reported third-quarter 2025 earnings of $2.26 per share, which topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.23 by 1.3%. The company’s earnings also improved 6.6% from $2.12 in the year-ago quarter. The outperformance was due to continued customer growth and rate changes.

IDACORP’s customer volume increased 2.3% year over year for the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2025. This boosted operating income by $7.8 million compared with the year-ago level. IDACORP’s total operating expenses were $379.6 million, down 3.9% from the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, IDACORP raised its full-year 2025 earnings guidance range to $5.80-$5.90 per share from the previous range of $5.70-$5.85.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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