Southern Company [NYSE: SO] jumped around 0.56 points on Tuesday, while shares priced at $67.04 at the close of the session, up 0.84%. The company report on February 15, 2024 at 7:30 AM that Southern Company reports fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 earnings.
Southern Company today reported fourth-quarter earnings of $855 million, or 78 cents per share, in 2023 compared with a loss of $87 million, or 8 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2022. Southern Company also reported full-year 2023 earnings of $4.0 billion, or $3.64 per share, compared with $3.5 billion, or $3.28 per share, in 2022.
Excluding the items described under “Net Income – Excluding Items” in the table below, Southern Company earned $700 million, or 64 cents per share, during the fourth quarter of 2023, compared with $285 million, or 26 cents per share, during the fourth quarter of 2022. For the full-year 2023, excluding these items, Southern Company earned $4.0 billion, or $3.65 per share, compared with $3.9 billion, or $3.60 per share, for 2022.
Compared to the average trading volume of 4.53M shares, SO reached a trading volume of 6385719 in the most recent trading day, which is why market watchdogs consider the stock to be active.
What do top market gurus say about Southern Company [SO]?
Based on careful and fact-backed analyses by Wall Street experts, the current consensus on the target price for SO shares is $74.50 per share. Analysis on target price and performance of stocks is usually carefully studied by market experts, and the current Wall Street consensus on SO stock is a recommendation set at 2.05. This rating represents a strong Buy recommendation, on the scale from 1 to 5, where 5 would mean strong sell, 4 represents Sell, 3 is Hold, and 2 indicates Buy.
BMO Capital Markets have made an estimate for Southern Company shares, keeping their opinion on the stock as Outperform, with their previous recommendation back on January 11, 2024. While these analysts kept the previous recommendation, Citigroup raised their target price to Buy. The new note on the price target was released on December 08, 2023, representing the official price target for Southern Company stock. Previously, the target price had yet another raise to $78, while Scotiabank analysts kept a Sector Perform rating on SO stock.
The Average True Range (ATR) for Southern Company is set at 1.29, with the Price to Sales ratio for SO stock in the period of the last 12 months amounting to 2.90. The Price to Book ratio for the last quarter was 2.34, with the Price to Cash per share for the same quarter was set at 0.69.
How has SO stock performed recently?
Southern Company [SO] fell into the red zone at the end of the last week, falling into a negative trend and dropping by -1.86. With this latest performance, SO shares dropped by -2.77% in over the last four-week period, additionally sinking by -1.14% over the last 6 months – not to mention a rise of 1.79% in the past year of trading.
Overbought and oversold stocks can be easily traced with the Relative Strength Index (RSI), where an RSI result of over 70 would be overbought, and any rate below 30 would indicate oversold conditions. An RSI rate of 50 would represent a neutral market momentum. The current RSI for SO stock in for the last two-week period is set at 41.56, with the RSI for the last a single of trading hit 41.67, and the three-weeks RSI is set at 42.60 for Southern Company [SO]. The present Moving Average for the last 50 days of trading for this stock 69.67, while it was recorded at 67.13 for the last single week of trading, and 69.51 for the last 200 days.
Southern Company [SO]: Deeper insight into the fundamentals
Southern Company’s liquidity data is similarly interesting compelling, with a Quick Ratio of 0.53 and a Current Ratio set at 0.77.
Earnings analysis for Southern Company [SO]
With the latest financial reports released by the company, Southern Company posted 0.79/share EPS, while the average EPS was predicted by analysts to be reported at 0.71/share. When compared, the two values demonstrate that the company surpassed the estimates by a Surprise Factor of 11.30%. The progress of the company may be observed through the prism of EPS growth rate, while Wall Street analysts are focusing on predicting the 5-year EPS growth rate for SO. When it comes to the mentioned value, analysts are expecting to see the 5-year EPS growth rate for Southern Company go to 8.10%.
Insider trade positions for Southern Company [SO]
The top three institutional holders of SO stocks are: VANGUARD GROUP INC with ownership of 1.3 billion shares, which is approximately 8.2815%. BLACKROCK INC., holding 1.03 billion shares of the stock with an approximate value of $176.59 billion in SO stocks shares; and BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC, currently with $156.75 billion in SO stock with ownership which is approximately 5.8325%.
