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Is Southern (SO) Stock Outpacing Its Utilities Peers This Year?

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Investors focused on the Utilities space have likely heard of Southern (SO - Free Report) , but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? One simple way to answer this question is to take a look at the year-to-date performance of SO and the rest of the Utilities group's stocks.

Southern is a member of our Utilities group, which includes 120 different companies and currently sits at #6 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank gauges the strength of our 16 individual sector groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups.

The Zacks Rank is a successful stock-picking model that emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions. The system highlights a number of different stocks that could be poised to outperform the broader market over the next one to three months. SO is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past 90 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for SO's full-year earnings has moved 1.65% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

Our latest available data shows that SO has returned about 40.82% since the start of the calendar year. At the same time, Utilities stocks have gained an average of 4.70%. As we can see, Southern is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Looking more specifically, SO belongs to the Utility - Electric Power industry, which includes 65 individual stocks and currently sits at #98 in the Zacks Industry Rank. On average, this group has gained an average of 21.18% so far this year, meaning that SO is performing better in terms of year-to-date returns.

SO will likely be looking to continue its solid performance, so investors interested in Utilities stocks should continue to pay close attention to the company.


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