Présentation de l'entreprise
The Southern Company operates as a major utility entity engaged in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, alongside providing energy-related products and services within natural gas choice markets. This enterprise functions within the Utilities sector, specifically under the industry classification of Regulated Electric, which implies a business model heavily influenced by government oversight and long-term infrastructure requirements. As of the latest reported data, the company reports an annual revenue of $29.55B and employs a workforce of 29,502 individuals, reflecting its substantial operational footprint. Although the market cap is listed as N/A in the provided dataset, the combination of nearly $30 billion in revenue and a massive employee base indicates that the company serves a vast customer base with significant market influence, positioning it as a cornerstone utility provider with extensive asset management responsibilities.
Santé financière
The company recorded a revenue of $29.55B and generated a net income of $4.34B over the trailing twelve-month period, with an EBITDA of $13.93B, highlighting a robust operational earnings power before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. The difference between the revenue figure and the net income reveals a significant cost structure where operating expenses, including depreciation and interest costs, consume a large portion of top-line growth before reaching the bottom line. However, the free cash flow stands at $-3,460,124,928, indicating a substantial cash outflow that suggests the company is currently investing heavily in capital expenditures or managing liquidity constraints that limit its immediate financial flexibility. The gross margin sits at 48.5%, while the operating margin is 12.7% and the profit margin reaches 14.7%, demonstrating that the company retains a healthy portion of revenue after covering the cost of goods sold but faces higher operational leverage that compresses the bottom line relative to gross profits. In terms of leverage, the company holds $1.64B in cash against total debt of $74.07B, resulting in a debt-to-equity ratio of 190.59%, which characterizes a highly leveraged balance sheet typical for capital-intensive utility firms. The current ratio of 0.65 indicates that the company's current liabilities exceed its current assets, signaling potential short-term liquidity challenges that must be managed through debt maturities or refinancing. Furthermore, the return on equity is 11.0% and the return on assets is 3.3%, metrics that reveal management is generating a solid return on shareholder capital while utilizing a vast asset base to produce earnings at a lower rate relative to total assets.
Évaluation de la valorisation
The trailing P/E ratio and forward P/E ratio are both listed as N/A in the available facts, meaning no explicit multiple data is provided to compare against historical or projected earnings trajectories. The price-to-book ratio is 1.61, indicating that the market values the company's equity at a premium of 61% over its book value, which may reflect the high value of regulated assets and stable cash flows. Since the price-to-sales ratio and the exact current share price are not explicitly defined as single numbers in the provided text beyond the high and low, we rely on the EV/EBITDA of 9.58, which suggests a valuation that is relatively tight compared to the high debt load, implying the market prices in future earnings recovery. The stock has traded within a 52-week range bounded by a high of $53.99 and a low of $47.87, with the exact current trading position relative to this specific range requiring the current price which is not explicitly stated as a single float in the facts, though the beta provides volatility context. The beta value is 0.41, indicating that the stock price is significantly less volatile than the broader market, moving at less than half the magnitude of market fluctuations. This low beta suggests that the asset acts as a defensive holding where price movements are dampened by the regulated nature of the utility business, protecting capital from broad market downturns.
Growth & Income
The company experienced a revenue growth rate of 10.1% year over year, whereas earnings growth was negative at -22.1%, implying that earnings are shrinking faster than revenue due to the high debt burden or one-time costs affecting the bottom line. Regarding income, the dividend yield and payout ratio are listed as N/A, which indicates that the company does not currently distribute a standard dividend or that the data is unavailable to assess sustainability. Given the negative earnings growth and negative free cash flow, the company effectively reinvests earnings into growth initiatives or debt management rather than paying out dividends to shareholders. The overall growth and income profile presents a scenario of expanding top-line revenue from a large base but contracting profitability, driven by a highly leveraged financial structure that prioritizes capital deployment over immediate income distribution to investors.