The Southern Company (SO) Stock in Decline Despite No Negative News

The Southern Company (SO), a company that is engaged in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, has declined 7.6% in aftermarket trading session. Consequently, SO stock is trading at $61.4855 at the time of the writing. The decline has come despite the announcement of the partnership between Georgia Power and Microsoft. On the last working day, i.e. Thursday, SO closed the day at $66.54 after declining 0.17% during regular trading hours.

Partnership Between SO Subsidiary and Microsoft

On Friday, Georgia Power, the largest electric subsidiary of SO, and Microsoft announced to invest more than $200,000 in support of Clark Atlanta University’s (CAU) Marketplace and Advanced Manufacturing Lab. The lab is developed to provide students from entrepreneurial undergraduate backgrounds the opportunity to bring enhancement and improvement in their knowledge, skill set, and market competitiveness in the renewable energy space. The students would build an advanced solar-powered generator through the program that would serve as the backup energy source for their campus.

Q3 2021 Earnings Results

On 4th November, SO released the earnings results for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2021. The quarter ended on 30th September 2021. The company generated net earnings of $1.1 billion against the net earnings of $1.3 billion for the same period of 2020. The net earnings per share for the quarter were $1.04 against $1.18 for the same period of 2020. For the nine months, the net earnings stood at $2.6 billion against $2.7 billion for the same period of 2020. The net earnings per share for the nine months were $2.46 against $2.58 for the same period of 2020.

Executive Commentary

Chairman, President, and CEO of SO, Thomas A. Fanning, while commenting on the results said that the company has once again experienced an outstanding period concerning operational performance during the quarter. The recovery of economies afterwards COVID pandemic has brought higher retail kilowatt-hour sales at the company’s state-regulated electric utilities. It continued to experience strong customer growth in its Southeastern footprint.

Future Outlook for SO

The last three months have seen SO stock increase by a meager 5%. That depicts that although the stock had no such negative sentiments associated with it during the period, yet its trading volume was not very high. Looking toward the future, potential investors should keep a close eye on the performance of SO stock.