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Forensic Analysis · Electric Utilities · as of Nov 9, 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.

C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
12.5%
ROE
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 (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). 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 C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade. 2 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. Capex and the payout together ran $6.0B past operating cash flow — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of. New debt covered it: total debt rose $6.3B over FY2025, while cash rose $569M.
4.5%
FY2025
Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 4.5% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 0.5-point range. After-tax operating profit was $5.2B in FY2023 and $6.1B in FY2025, with operating income at 23.1% of revenue in FY2023, 26.4% in FY2024 and 24.7% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $127.4B in FY2023 to $133.7B in FY2025 (+5%), while the revenue it carried went from $25.3B to $29.6B.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$29.55B
Revenue Growth YoY+10.6%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+8.2%
Net Margin14.7%
Free Cash Flow-$2.94B
Return on Equity12.5%
Debt / Equity1.84x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Nov 9, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.

See a wrong number? Report an error with the filing it should match.