An Earnings Beat: Electric utility firm Southern Company (NYSE:SO) reported earnings per share (excluding certain one-time items) of 27 cents, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 26 cents.
Estimate Revision Trend & Surprise History: The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter has been unchanged in the last 30 days.
As far as earnings surprises are concerned, Southern Company is on a solid footing, having gone past the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four reports, with the average positive surprise being 8.21%. This isshown in the chart below:
Southern Company (The) Price and EPS Surprise
Southern Company (The) price-eps-surprise | Southern Company (The) Quote
Revenue Came in Lower than Expected: Revenues of $4.9 billion came below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5 billion.
Key Stats: Southern Company’s total retail sales decreased 9.8%, with residential and commercial sales going down by 13.9% and 8.3%, respectively. Moreover, industrial sales declined 7.2%. This brought about a downward movement in overall electricity sales and usage. Total electricity sales during the fourth quarter was down 6.8% from the same period last year. Meanwhile, total wholesale sales increased 3.2% year over year.
The power supplier’s operations and maintenance cost edged up 2.4% to $1.7 billion, but the utility’s total operating expense for the period – at $4.2 billion – was down 11.2% from the prior-year level.
Zacks Rank: Currently, Southern Company carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
(You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.)
Check back later for our full write up on this Southern Company earnings report later!
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Southern Company (The) (SO): Free Stock Analysis Report
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