Southern Company (SO)

• Market cap: $101B
• Sector: Utilities
• Industry: Electric Services

About: Southern is one of the largest utilities in the U.S. The company serves 9 million customers with vertically integrated electric utilities in three states and natural gas distribution utilities in four states. It owns 50 gigawatts of rate-regulated generating capacity, primarily for serving customers in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Subsidiary Southern Power owns 13 gigawatts of natural gas generation and renewable energy across the U.S. and sells the electricity primarily under long-term contracts.

Employees: 28,100

Fund manager confidence

Based on 2024 Q2 SEC filings by fund managers ($100M+ AUM)

68% more call options, than puts

Call options by funds: $414M | Put options by funds: $246M

56% more first-time investments, than exits

New positions opened: 176 | Existing positions closed: 113

45% more funds holding in top 10

Funds holding in top 10: 11 [Q1] → 16 (+5) [Q2]

13% more capital invested

Capital invested by funds: $51.1B [Q1] → $57.7B (+$6.6B) [Q2]

12% more repeat investments, than reductions

Existing positions increased: 722 | Existing positions reduced: 647

4% more funds holding

Funds holding: 1,790 [Q1] → 1,853 (+63) [Q2]

8.83% less ownership

Funds ownership: 75.9% [Q1] → 67.07% (-8.83%) [Q2]

Research analyst outlook

14 Wall Street Analysts provided 1 year price targets over the past 3 months

• Low target: $78 16% downside
• Avg. target: $89 4% downside
• High target: $97 5% upside

14 analyst ratings

• positive: 5 36%
• neutral: 8 57%
• negative: 1 7%

Barclays Nicholas Campanella 90% 1-year accuracy 52 / 58 met price target	10% downside $83	Equal-Weight Maintained	15 Oct 2024
Guggenheim Shahriar Pourreza 81% 1-year accuracy 17 / 21 met price target	5% upside $97	Buy Maintained	2 Oct 2024
Morgan Stanley Stephen Byrd 62% 1-year accuracy 31 / 50 met price target	12% downside $82	Equal-Weight Maintained	25 Sept 2024
UBS Daniel Ford 75% 1-year accuracy 3 / 4 met price target	2% downside $91	Neutral Maintained	20 Sept 2024
Jefferies Julien Dumoulin-Smith 69% 1-year accuracy 29 / 42 met price target	1% upside $94	Hold Initiated	19 Sept 2024