Forensic Analysis · Utilities · as of Aug 11, 2026

Southern Co (SO)

A forensic read on Southern Co built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

D · Weak — demands caution

Forensic grade

Grey Zone

Financial health

1.3

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

23.0

P / E (ttm)

12.1%

ROE

$104.8B

Market cap

3.27%

Dividend yield

10.6%

Revenue growth

This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.

Southern Co earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.3, placing it in the Grey zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by shareholder returns.

What the filings flag

FCF ($2.9B)

FY2025

Shareholder returns. Returned $3.0B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($2.9B) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $9.8B — 31% of that. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.

4.4%

FY2025

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 4.4% in the latest fiscal year and steady — slightly below its ~6% cost of capital — reinvestment is roughly a wash.

+0.9%/yr

FY2022–FY2025

Share count. Diluted share count changed +3% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+0.9%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$29.55B

Revenue Growth YoY+10.6%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)+0.3%

Net Margin14.7%

Free Cash Flow-$2.94B

Return on Equity12.1%

Debt / Equity1.84x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.