Southern (NYSE:SO) Releases Q1 2025 Earnings Guidance

Southern (NYSE:SO) issued an update on its first quarter 2025 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 1.200-1.200 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 1.150. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Southern also updated its FY 2025 guidance to 4.200-4.300 EPS.

Southern Stock Performance

NYSE SO traded up $0.62 on Friday, reaching $88.44. The stock had a trading volume of 2,147,508 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,030,806. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The company has a market cap of $96.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.53. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $83.59 and a two-hundred day moving average of $86.81. Southern has a 1-year low of $65.99 and a 1-year high of $94.45.

Southern (NYSE:SO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.01). Southern had a net margin of 17.87% and a return on equity of 12.78%. The business had revenue of $6.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.90 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Southern will post 4.05 EPS for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.26%. Southern’s payout ratio is 66.98%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Guggenheim lowered Southern from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Mizuho boosted their price target on Southern from $83.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Southern from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Southern from $99.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Southern from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $89.79.

Insider Transactions at Southern

In other Southern news, CEO James Jeffrey Peoples sold 14,540 shares of Southern stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.00, for a total value of $1,250,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,236 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,138,296. The trade was a 52.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,170 shares of Southern stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.90, for a total transaction of $100,503.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 88,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,592,958.70. This represents a 1.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

About Southern

The Southern Company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. The company also develops, constructs, acquires, owns, and manages power generation assets, including renewable energy projects and sells electricity in the wholesale market; and distributes natural gas in Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee, as well as provides gas marketing services, gas distribution operations, and gas pipeline investments operations.