# Southern (SO.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/SO

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:33:40.853Z. Financial observations: FY1996–FY2026.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: pass; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $89.18 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

Estimated value: low $41.20 per share, central $50.67 per share, high $58.76 per share. Buy at or below the central value $50.67 per share. Valuation as of 2026-10-16T07:33:40.853Z; scenarios are not confidence intervals.

Expected annual return: 6.9% at the stated quote. About 6.9% a year at today's price (required return 10.0%). required return 10.0% a year (10% floor; US 10-year bond 5.1% + 4 points).

## Checklist

### understandable: pass

- 3 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 3

- Years with a net loss: 0

- Operating margin variation: 0.30×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: 0.10×

- FY2018: 0.18×

- FY2019: 0.36×

- FY2020: 0.24×

- FY2021: 0.16×

- FY2022: 0.18×

- FY2023: 0.23×

- FY2024: 0.26×

- FY2025: 0.25×

- LTM to Jun 2026: 0.24×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- Recent gross margin fell 13.9pp below the typical margin (limit 4pp)

- ROIC, median of available years: 5.6%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: 4.3%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 13.9 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 43.7%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 29.8%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 34.7%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: 2.1%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 5.1%

- FY2017: 3.0%

- FY2018: 5.4%

- FY2019: 8.1%

- FY2020: 6.0%

- FY2021: 4.3%

- FY2022: 5.3%

- FY2023: 5.8%

- FY2024: 6.2%

- FY2025: 5.9%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- incremental invested capital return below threshold

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: 0.78×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: $15B

- Net income, five-year total: $19B

- Return on incremental invested capital: 7.3%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: -0.3 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: -0.8 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 14.9%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: 1.00×

- FY2022: 1.00×

- FY2023: -0.03×

- FY2024: 1.00×

- FY2025: 1.00×

### management: pass

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2016 to 2025 (9 years)

- buybacks unrelated to price (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: 5.1% vs 5.9%

- Per-share earnings: 2.60 to 3.91 (three-year endpoint medians)

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: 2.0%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 0.8%

- Market cap gain: $50B

- Cumulative retained earnings: $4.5B

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 2.0%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 0.8%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2016

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value growth: 5.2%

- Per-share value change: $1.31

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: $2.60

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: $3.91

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): -1.00

- Average buyback yield: 0.6%

- Buyback history: 3 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: No

- Acquisition spending: $6.9B

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: $32B

- ROIC, first three-year median: 5.1%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 5.9%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: $2.60

- FY2017: $0.87

- FY2018: $2.19

- FY2019: $4.51

- FY2020: $2.94

- FY2021: $2.25

- FY2022: $3.27

- FY2023: $3.62

- FY2024: $3.99

- FY2025: $3.91

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -3.5%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 0.86×

- Restructuring years, last five: 2

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 1.4%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 2.26×

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.15×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -2.2%

- FY2017: -5.0%

- FY2018: -4.0%

- FY2019: -0.9%

- FY2020: -2.9%

- FY2021: -2.9%

- FY2022: -2.1%

- FY2023: -2.6%

- FY2024: -3.7%

- FY2025: -3.5%

## Holders

## Price story

Price needs cash profits to grow 10.4% a year for ten years · "Southern's Subsidiary Signs Long-Term Power Agreement With OpenAI" (finance.yahoo.com, Jul 2026) · sales +2.1%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:57.139Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

Price needs cash profits to grow 10.4% a year for ten years

- 2025-07-16: Southern Company's Power Plan Gets a Nod to Meet Surging AI Demand ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/southern-companys-power-plan-gets-120200252.html))

- 2025-09-05: Southern's Georgia Power wins approval for five new solar facilities ([seekingalpha.com](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4492825-southerns-georgia-power-wins-approval-for-five-new-solar-facilities?utm_source=feed_news_all&utm_medium=referral&feed_item_type=news))

- 2026-02-19: Southern Co raises spending plan by 7% as data center power demand swells ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/southern-co-raises-spending-plan-133908858.html))

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales +2.1%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/92122/000009212226000006/so-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-19.

- FY2017: $23B 

- FY2018: $23B 

- FY2019: $21B 

- FY2020: $20B 

- FY2021: $23B 

- FY2022: $29B 

- FY2023: $25B 

- FY2024: $27B 

- FY2025: $30B 

- FY2026: $30B 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 29.8%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/92122/000009212226000006/so-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-19.

- FY2016: 42.9% 

- FY2017: 43.1% 

- FY2018: 40.9% 

- FY2019: 44.8% 

- FY2020: 48.6% 

- FY2021: 44.3% 

- FY2022: 36.3% 

- FY2023: 46.4% 

- FY2024: 49.9% 

- FY2025: 29.8% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in utilities regulated electric; annual sales are USD 29.6 billion.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/92122/000009212226000006/so-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-19); FY2025: revenue 29553000000; grossProfit 8809000000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); SO.US: The Southern Company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the sale of electricity. The company offers electric service to retail customers and wholesale customers; and energy-related products and services to natural gas choice markets. It also develops, constructs, acquires, owns, operates, and manages power generation assets, as well as battery energy storage projects; sells electricity at market-based rates in the wholesale market; and deploys microgrids for commercial, industrial, governmental, and utility customers. In addition, the company is involved in the distribution of natural gas in Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee; distributes energy and resilience solutions; and invests in telecommunications. The Southern Company was incorporated in 1945 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 29.8% to 49.9% during 2023–25; it earns 5.6% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-19); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 46.4%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-19); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 49.9%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/92122/000009212226000006/so-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-19); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 29.8%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-19); 10-year return on capital observations [[2016,0.05094757665784152],[2017,0.030389818757021556],[2018,0.05406137866896817],[2019,0.08137753334458943],[2020,0.05966665785990869],[2021,0.043462430773104854],[2022,0.05285965864234281],[2023,0.05797177904475314],[2024,0.06174759241199623],[2025,0.058733883264827154]]; median 0.056016578856860656. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Earns 7.3% on new investment; paid dividends in 10 of 10 years.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-19); FY2016: growth capex 4387000000; upkeep 2923000000; owner earnings 2493000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 1.7597272362615324.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-19); FY2017: growth capex 3966000000; upkeep 3457000000; owner earnings 880000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 4.506818181818182.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-19); FY2019: growth capex 0; upkeep 7555000000; owner earnings 530000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-19); FY2021: growth capex 3267000000; upkeep 3973000000; owner earnings 2408000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 1.3567275747508305.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-19); FY2022: growth capex 3859000000; upkeep 4064000000; owner earnings 3535000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 1.0916548797736916.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-19); FY2024: growth capex 3689000000; upkeep 5266000000; owner earnings 4401000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.8382185866848444.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/92122/000009212226000006/so-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-19); FY2025: growth capex 6707000000; upkeep 6030000000; owner earnings 4341000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 1.5450357060585118.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-19); Incremental return on capital 0.07288333643860873, from the economics test's unchanged annual inputs.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-19); Dividend observations: [[2016,2104000000],[2017,2300000000],[2018,2425000000],[2019,2570000000],[2020,2685000000],[2021,2777000000],[2022,2907000000],[2023,3035000000],[2024,2954000000],[2025,3015000000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 0.1% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); SO.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 0.095 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price assumes cash profits grow 10.4% yearly over ten years.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-19); Ten-year compound average after fade. Initial solved rate 0.1368527362577291. Price 89.18; FX 1; discount 0.1; same standard ten-year fade to terminal 0.03. FY2015 owner earnings/share -2.8194748358862145 → FY2025 3.914337240757439. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $51.57 per share

- 2016-11: $46.82 per share

- 2016-12: $49.19 per share

- 2017-01: $49.43 per share

- 2017-02: $50.82 per share

- 2017-03: $49.78 per share

- 2017-04: $49.80 per share

- 2017-05: $50.61 per share

- 2017-06: $47.88 per share

- 2017-07: $47.93 per share

- 2017-08: $48.26 per share

- 2017-09: $49.14 per share

- 2017-10: $52.20 per share

- 2017-11: $51.20 per share

- 2017-12: $48.09 per share

- 2018-01: $45.11 per share

- 2018-02: $43.06 per share

- 2018-03: $44.66 per share

- 2018-04: $46.12 per share

- 2018-05: $44.90 per share

- 2018-06: $46.31 per share

- 2018-07: $48.60 per share

- 2018-08: $43.78 per share

- 2018-09: $43.60 per share

- 2018-10: $45.03 per share

- 2018-11: $47.33 per share

- 2018-12: $43.92 per share

- 2019-01: $48.60 per share

- 2019-02: $49.69 per share

- 2019-03: $51.68 per share

- 2019-04: $53.22 per share

- 2019-05: $53.50 per share

- 2019-06: $55.28 per share

- 2019-07: $56.20 per share

- 2019-08: $58.26 per share

- 2019-09: $61.77 per share

- 2019-10: $62.66 per share

- 2019-11: $61.99 per share

- 2019-12: $63.70 per share

- 2020-01: $70.40 per share

- 2020-02: $60.36 per share

- 2020-03: $54.14 per share

- 2020-04: $56.73 per share

- 2020-05: $57.07 per share

- 2020-06: $51.85 per share

- 2020-07: $54.61 per share

- 2020-08: $52.18 per share

- 2020-09: $54.22 per share

- 2020-10: $57.45 per share

- 2020-11: $59.85 per share

- 2020-12: $61.43 per share

- 2021-01: $58.92 per share

- 2021-02: $56.72 per share

- 2021-03: $62.16 per share

- 2021-04: $66.17 per share

- 2021-05: $63.92 per share

- 2021-06: $60.51 per share

- 2021-07: $63.87 per share

- 2021-08: $65.73 per share

- 2021-09: $61.97 per share

- 2021-10: $62.32 per share

- 2021-11: $61.10 per share

- 2021-12: $68.58 per share

- 2022-01: $69.49 per share

- 2022-02: $64.77 per share

- 2022-03: $72.51 per share

- 2022-04: $73.39 per share

- 2022-05: $75.66 per share

- 2022-06: $71.31 per share

- 2022-07: $76.89 per share

- 2022-08: $77.07 per share

- 2022-09: $68.00 per share

- 2022-10: $65.48 per share

- 2022-11: $67.64 per share

- 2022-12: $71.41 per share

- 2023-01: $67.68 per share

- 2023-02: $63.06 per share

- 2023-03: $69.58 per share

- 2023-04: $73.55 per share

- 2023-05: $69.75 per share

- 2023-06: $70.25 per share

- 2023-07: $72.34 per share

- 2023-08: $67.73 per share

- 2023-09: $64.72 per share

- 2023-10: $67.30 per share

- 2023-11: $70.98 per share

- 2023-12: $70.12 per share

- 2024-01: $69.52 per share

- 2024-02: $67.25 per share

- 2024-03: $71.74 per share

- 2024-04: $73.50 per share

- 2024-05: $80.14 per share

- 2024-06: $77.57 per share

- 2024-07: $83.52 per share

- 2024-08: $86.40 per share

- 2024-09: $90.18 per share

- 2024-10: $91.03 per share

- 2024-11: $89.13 per share

- 2024-12: $82.32 per share

- 2025-01: $83.95 per share

- 2025-02: $89.79 per share

- 2025-03: $91.95 per share

- 2025-04: $91.89 per share

- 2025-05: $90.00 per share

- 2025-06: $91.83 per share

- 2025-07: $94.48 per share

- 2025-08: $92.30 per share

- 2025-09: $94.77 per share

- 2025-10: $94.04 per share

- 2025-11: $91.12 per share

- 2025-12: $87.20 per share

- 2026-01: $89.31 per share

- 2026-02: $97.38 per share

- 2026-03: $96.52 per share

- 2026-04: $96.70 per share

- 2026-05: $92.05 per share

- 2026-06: $95.71 per share

- 2026-07: $94.54 per share

- 2026-08: $88.00 per share

- 2026-09: $82.89 per share

- 2026-10: $88.11 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

- FY2016: low $2.09 per share, central $2.17 per share, high $2.25 per share

- FY2017: low $11.20 per share, central $12.51 per share, high $14.27 per share

- FY2018: low $10.56 per share, central $12.00 per share, high $13.80 per share

- FY2019: low $7.00 per share, central $7.81 per share, high $8.83 per share

- FY2020: low $5.71 per share, central $6.42 per share, high $7.37 per share

- FY2021: low $6.93 per share, central $7.74 per share, high $8.81 per share

- FY2022: low $9.11 per share, central $11.13 per share, high $12.81 per share

- FY2023: low $6.69 per share, central $7.92 per share, high $9.19 per share

- FY2024: low $29.28 per share, central $34.73 per share, high $40.35 per share

- FY2025: low $39.19 per share, central $48.47 per share, high $56.39 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

Prior published observations retained from 2026-10-15T06:39:26.935Z where newer inputs omit a numeric field or fiscal period.

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/92122/000009212226000006/so-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-19.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.