SOSouthern Company
Is the business good?
A genuinely good business: earnings fully cash-backed (1.6×) and margins widening.
Operating profit is fully backed by cash.
Operating profit is falling even as sales grow, costs are outrunning the top line.
A balanced mix of margins, efficiency, and leverage. ROE 11% = margin × turnover × leverage.
Unless marked, from derived.
Against the whole market›
Percentile against every name Ryufin tracks. Higher is better; the tick marks the middle of the market. Context, not one of the checks above.
Where this answer is blind. The F-score rewards improvement, so an already-elite company can score mid-pack.
How good a business is SO?
Southern Company earns 5.1% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so growth costs more than it returns.
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 3.9 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- 24%
Operating margin · Utilities - Regulated Electric median 22% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.59×
Cash conversion · 1.62× a year ago · operating cash flow covers the operating profit after tax
- Share count, year on year
- +2.1%
Share count, year on year · shareholders own a smaller slice than a year ago
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 24% |
| FY2021 | 16% |
| FY2022 | 18% |
| FY2023 | 23% |
| FY2024 | 26% |
| FY2025 | 25% |
Details›
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 24%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 14%
- Free cash flow margin
- −11%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $30.2B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- −$3.47B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $4.24B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 5.1%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion is operating cash flow over operating profit after tax.
Utilities, Regulated Electric
The closest names by size in the same industry