The Southern Company

NYSE:SO Stock Report

Market Cap: US$91.1b

Southern Valuation

Is SO undervalued compared to its fair value, analyst forecasts and its price relative to the market?

Valuation Score

3/6

Valuation Score 3/6

  • Below Fair Value

  • Significantly Below Fair Value

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Peers

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Industry

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Fair Ratio

  • Analyst Forecast

Share Price vs Fair Value

What is the Fair Price of SO when looking at its future cash flows? For this estimate we use a Discounted Cash Flow model.

Below Fair Value: SO ($83.16) is trading above our estimate of fair value ($20.96)

Significantly Below Fair Value: SO is trading above our estimate of fair value.

Key Valuation Metric

Which metric is best to use when looking at relative valuation for SO?

Key metric: As SO is profitable we use its Price-To-Earnings Ratio for relative valuation analysis.

The above table shows the Price to Earnings ratio for SO. This is calculated by dividing SO's market cap by their current earnings.
What is SO's PE Ratio?
PE Ratio19.3x
EarningsUS$4.72b
Market CapUS$91.12b

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Peers

How does SO's PE Ratio compare to its peers?

The above table shows the PE ratio for SO vs its peers. Here we also display the market cap and forecasted growth for additional consideration.
CompanyForward PEEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
Peer Average19.7x
DUK Duke Energy
19.5x7.7%US$84.2b
CEG Constellation Energy
25.1x3.0%US$71.9b
AEP American Electric Power Company
18.6x8.9%US$49.2b
PCG PG&E
15.7x10.1%US$43.2b
SO Southern
19.3x5.6%US$91.1b

Price-To-Earnings vs Peers: SO is good value based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (19.3x) compared to the peer average (19.7x).

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Industry

How does SO's PE Ratio compare vs other companies in the US Electric Utilities Industry?

0 CompaniesPrice / EarningsEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
No more companies available in this PE range
SO 19.3xIndustry Avg. 20.8xNo. of Companies6PE01020304050+
0 CompaniesEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
No more companies

Price-To-Earnings vs Industry: SO is good value based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (19.3x) compared to the US Electric Utilities industry average (20.8x).

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Fair Ratio

What is SO's PE Ratio compared to its Fair PE Ratio? This is the expected PE Ratio taking into account the company's forecast earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors.

SO PE Ratio vs Fair Ratio.
Fair Ratio
Current PE Ratio19.3x
Fair PE Ratio19.9x

Price-To-Earnings vs Fair Ratio: SO is good value based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (19.3x) compared to the estimated Fair Price-To-Earnings Ratio (19.9x).

Analyst Price Targets

What is the analyst 12-month forecast and do we have any statistical confidence in the consensus price target?

The above table shows the analyst SO forecast and predictions for the stock price in 12 month’s time.
DateShare PriceAverage 1Y Price TargetDispersionHighLow1Y Actual priceAnalysts
CurrentUS$83.16
US$91.38
+9.9%
8.3%US$104.00US$71.00n/a19
Dec ’25US$89.13
US$91.80
+3.0%
8.0%US$104.00US$70.00n/a19
Nov ’25US$88.54
US$91.82
+3.7%
8.0%US$104.00US$70.00n/a19
Oct ’25US$90.88
US$87.03
-4.2%
9.4%US$97.00US$70.00n/a18
Sep ’25US$86.40
US$85.48
-1.1%
9.2%US$96.00US$70.00n/a18
Aug ’25US$87.57
US$79.56
-9.1%
7.1%US$87.00US$70.00n/a19
Jul ’25US$77.00
US$77.35
+0.5%
7.0%US$85.50US$66.00n/a19
Jun ’25US$80.14
US$76.85
-4.1%
6.5%US$85.00US$66.00n/a19
May ’25US$74.52
US$74.73
+0.3%
6.0%US$82.00US$66.00n/a19
Apr ’25US$71.10
US$74.37
+4.6%
6.6%US$82.00US$65.00n/a19
Mar ’25US$66.86
US$74.16
+10.9%
6.6%US$82.00US$65.00n/a19
Feb ’25US$70.50
US$74.90
+6.2%
5.9%US$82.00US$67.00n/a19
Jan ’25US$70.12
US$73.63
+5.0%
6.9%US$82.00US$64.00n/a19
Dec ’24US$71.52
US$72.76
+1.7%
7.0%US$82.00US$64.00US$89.1317
Nov ’24US$68.43
US$72.06
+5.3%
7.6%US$81.00US$64.00US$88.5417
Oct ’24US$64.72
US$72.94
+12.7%
6.6%US$81.00US$65.00US$90.8817
Sep ’24US$67.22
US$72.88
+8.4%
6.6%US$81.00US$65.00US$86.4017
Aug ’24US$71.28
US$73.13
+2.6%
7.5%US$80.00US$60.00US$87.5715
Jul ’24US$70.25
US$72.93
+3.8%
7.5%US$80.00US$60.00US$77.0015
Jun ’24US$69.18
US$72.86
+5.3%
7.9%US$82.00US$61.00US$80.1414
May ’24US$74.09
US$73.07
-1.4%
7.5%US$82.00US$63.00US$74.5214
Apr ’24US$69.58
US$70.29
+1.0%
7.9%US$79.00US$57.00US$71.1014
Mar ’24US$62.32
US$70.87
+13.7%
7.0%US$81.00US$61.00US$66.8615
Feb ’24US$68.86
US$71.73
+4.2%
6.4%US$81.00US$64.00US$70.5015
Jan ’24US$71.41
US$71.06
-0.5%
8.7%US$85.00US$62.00US$70.1216
Dec ’23US$67.72
US$67.88
+0.2%
9.1%US$80.00US$59.00US$71.5216

Analyst Forecast: Target price is less than 20% higher than the current share price.

Discover undervalued companies

7D

1Y

7D

1Y

7D

1Y

Company Analysis and Financial Data Status

DataLast Updated (UTC time)
Company Analysis2024/12/24 04:11
End of Day Share Price 2024/12/24 00:00
Earnings2024/09/30
Annual Earnings2023/12/31

Data Sources

The data used in our company analysis is from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. The following data is used in our analysis model to generate this report. Data is normalised which can introduce a delay from the source being available.

PackageDataTimeframeExample US Source *
Company Financials10 years
  • Income statement
  • Cash flow statement
  • Balance sheet
Analyst Consensus Estimates+3 years
  • Forecast financials
  • Analyst price targets
Market Prices30 years
  • Stock prices
  • Dividends, Splits and Actions
Ownership10 years
  • Top shareholders
  • Insider trading
Management10 years
  • Leadership team
  • Board of directors
Key Developments10 years
  • Company announcements

* example for US securities, for non-US equivalent regulatory forms and sources are used.

Unless specified all financial data is based on a yearly period but updated quarterly. This is known as Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) or Last Twelve Month (LTM) Data. Learn more here.

Analysis Model and Snowflake

Details of the analysis model used to generate this report is available on our Github page, we also have guides on how to use our reports and tutorials on Youtube.

Learn about the world class team who designed and built the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Industry and Sector Metrics

Our industry and section metrics are calculated every 6 hours by Simply Wall St, details of our process are available on .

Analyst Sources

The Southern Company is covered by 41 analysts. 14 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.

AnalystInstitution
Jacob KilsteinArgus Research Company
Nathan JudgeAtlantic Equities LLP
Daniel FordBarclays