Power supplier The Southern Company SO reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $1.13 per share, up 22.8% from 92 cents a year earlier. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.01 per share by 11.88%, supported by customer usage and growth, utility investment, equity-method earnings and lower income taxes.
Operating revenues edged up 0.1% year over year to $6.98 billion but missed the consensus mark of $7.36 billion by 5.18%. Data center usage jumped 55% as large-load customers continued to ramp demand.
Southern Company (The) Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Southern Company (The) price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Southern Company (The) Quote
SO Benefits From Stronger Electricity Demand
Weather-normal retail electricity sales increased 2.3% year over year in the first half of 2026, marking the strongest growth through June in nearly two decades. Commercial sales rose 7.4% in the quarter, while industrial volumes were flat after weather adjustment.
Residential sales declined 0.7% on a weather-normal basis in the quarter, though Southern added about 11,000 electric residential customers. Net electric customer additions exceeded 40,000 over the past year, helping offset softer household usage.
Southern Company Revenue Mix Shows Limited Growth
Retail electric fuel revenues fell $76 million year over year to $1.06 billion, while non-fuel retail electric revenues increased $63 million to $3.68 billion. Wholesale electric revenues advanced $18 million to $699 million and other electric revenues rose $22 million to $242 million.
Natural gas revenues declined $13 million to $966 million, while other revenues decreased $10 million to $325 million. The mixed revenue performance left total operating revenues nearly unchanged from the prior-year quarter.
SO Controls Costs as Depreciation Rises
Total operating expenses declined $8 million to $5.20 billion. Fuel and purchased-power costs fell $34 million and the cost of natural gas dropped $78 million. These benefits were partly offset by a $111 million increase in depreciation and amortization and a $20 million rise in non-fuel operations and maintenance expenses.
Operating income increased $12 million to $1.78 billion. Allowance for equity funds used during construction rose $48 million, while earnings from equity-method investments increased $76 million. Income tax expense declined $102 million, helping lift net income attributable to Southern Company to $1.17 billion from $880 million.
Southern Company Expands Large-Load Commitments
Southern added about 6 gigawatts of large-load contracts since its first-quarter call, bringing total contracted demand to 17 gigawatts across 31 projects. Another 8 gigawatts were in late-stage or finalizing phases, including 3 gigawatts expected to be completed in the near term.
Data center system load exceeded 1.2 gigawatts, up more than 500 megawatts from a year earlier. The company’s prospective large-load pipeline remained above 75 gigawatts, while more than 12 gigawatts of contracted projects had begun construction.
SO Advances Generation and Financing Plans
The company has 10 gigawatts of state-regulated, company-owned generation resources under construction, including thermal, battery storage and solar capacity. Active requests for proposals in Alabama and Georgia are intended to address additional needs in the early 2030s, though potential investments from those processes are not included in the current capital plan.
Southern sourced $700 million of additional equity through at-the-market forward contracts during the quarter. This reduced its remaining projected equity need through 2030 to $1.1 billion, while management continued to target funds from operations to debt of about 17% by 2029.
Southern Company Sees Earnings Near Guidance High End
This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company now expects full-year 2026 adjusted earnings to be near or at the top of its $4.50-$4.60 per share guided range. Adjusted earnings for the first half reached $2.46 per share, compared with $2.15 in the prior-year period. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
For the third quarter, Southern projects adjusted earnings of $1.65 per share. Management expects customer growth, rising electricity sales and continued execution across regulated utilities and Southern Power to support performance in the second half.
Some Key Utility Earnings
While we have discussed Southern’s second-quarter results in detail, let’s see how some other utilities have fared this earnings season.
Exelon Corporation EXC posted second-quarter 2026 adjusted operating earnings of 43 cents per share, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Earnings increased 10.3% from 39 cents in the year-ago quarter. Higher distribution and transmission rates across several utilities supported the improvement. Revenues totaled $5.97 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5.66 billion by 5.46%.
Exelon generated $3.67 billion in operating cash flow during the first six months of 2026, up from $2.71 billion in the year-ago period. As of June 30, 2026, long-term debt was $50.31 billion compared with $47.41 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025.
American Water Works Company Inc. AWK posted second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $1.61 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.59 by 1.3%. The bottom line increased 8.1% from $1.49 in the year-ago quarter. Earnings benefited from contributions coming from authorized rate increases, infrastructure investments and acquired operations. Revenues of $1.36 billion surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.28 billion by 6.2% and rose 6.2% year over year.
Cash and cash equivalents totaled $191 million as of June 30, 2026, up from $98 million at the end of 2025. American Water reaffirmed adjusted earnings guidance of $6.02-$6.12 per share for 2026. Management also maintained its long-term earnings and dividend growth targets of 7-9%.
IDACORP, Inc. IDA reported second-quarter 2026 earnings of $1.79 per share, which topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.75 by 2.3%. The company’s earnings also improved 1.7% from $1.76 in the year-ago quarter. The year-over-year improvement was due to customer growth, rate changes and revenues from large contract customers. Total revenues in the second quarter of 2026 were $469.8 million, lagging the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $478 million by 1.8%.
The long-term debt was $3.68 billion as of June 30, 2026, compared with $3.33 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025. IDACORP raised the lower end of its 2026 earnings guidance to $6.30-$6.45 per share from the previous range of $6.25-$6.45. IDA projects a capital expenditure of $1.3-$1.5 billion for 2026.
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Southern Company (The) (SO): Free Stock Analysis Report
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