Southern Company (SO)

In the past six months, The Southern Co. (SO) stock has seen an upward trend, increasing by 10.3% and 9.33%. Over the past year, the stock has shown an increase of 17.70% and 18.05%. The stock reached an all-time high of $90.85 in October 2024 and $91.87 in October 2024. Recent news indicates strong revenue growth and positive profit trends for Southern Company over the last two quarters. The company reported a solid start to 2025, with first-quarter operating revenues increasing by 17.0% compared to the first quarter of 2024, and earnings per share also showing an increase. Despite the overall positive stock performance, in the six months leading up to March 2025, SO's stock performance of a 0.8% rise lagged behind some of its peers in the Electric Power sub-industry.

Demand for Southern Company's products and services, particularly electricity, exhibits clear seasonality, with greater demand during the summer and winter months compared to the spring and fall. The Southeast region is characterized as a dual-peak region, experiencing high demand in both summer and winter, necessitating sufficient power generation and natural gas system capacity to meet energy needs.

The Southern Company is a prominent American gas and electric utility holding company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, operating primarily within the Utilities sector, specifically in the Electric Utilities: Central industry, and also has interests in Energy and Telecommunications. As one of the largest energy providers in the United States, Southern Company serves approximately 9 million gas and electric utility customers. The company's core business is electricity generation and distribution, with vertically integrated electric utilities operating in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, utilizing a diverse energy portfolio. Through Southern Power, the company develops, owns, and manages power generation assets, selling electricity in the wholesale market across the U.S. Southern Company Gas distributes natural gas to utility customers in Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee, operating and maintaining natural gas pipelines and storage facilities. The company offers distributed energy and resilience solutions, deploying microgrids for various customers, and provides digital wireless communications and fiber optics services through subsidiaries like Southern Linc and Southern Telecom.

The Southern Company's regulated regional electric utilities serve a 120,000-square-mile territory across six U.S. states: Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia. Its wholesale power generation subsidiary, Southern Power, has a broader reach, with facilities operating or under development in 15 states, stretching from California to Maine.

In the past year, Southern Company has maintained a strong brand reputation, being named to Forbes' "World's Most Admired Companies" list in 2025 and ranking #1 in its industry for social responsibility, financial soundness, and long-term investment value. The company has also been recognized for over 18 years for its commitment to military service members.

The ownership of The Southern Co. (SO) is primarily institutional, with 67.25% held by institutional shareholders, 32.43% held by individual investors, and 0.33% held by company insiders. Major institutional owners include Vanguard Group Inc., BlackRock Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., State Street Corp., FMR Inc. (Fmr Llc), Capital Research & Mgmt Co - Division 3 (Capital International Investors), Geode Capital Management, Llc, and Massachusetts Financial Services Co /ma/.