The Southern Company
Regulated Electric and Natural Gas UtilitiesFounded 1945- Updated July 2025
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Last reviewed: July 2025
CorpDigest
The Southern Company
Financial Performance
Last reviewed: July 2025 · By Swet Parvadiya
Revenue
$29.3B
Market Cap
$95.0B
Net Income
$2.5B
Employees
27,000
Southern Company's FY2024 revenue of $29.3 billion grew from $27.5 billion in FY2023 and $26.1 billion in FY2022 — a growth rate that reflects both the Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 capital additions being incorporated into the regulated rate base and the broader increase in electricity demand driven by industrial expansion and data center construction across the Southeast. Net income of $2.5 billion on $29.3 billion in revenue represents an 8.5% net margin, typical for a regulated utility where the return on equity is set by regulators rather than by competitive market dynamics. The authorized ROE range of 10.5% to 11.25% in Georgia is the financial foundation of the company's earnings model. Georgia Power's capital base — expanded significantly by the Vogtle additions — earns this regulated return, which flows through to consolidated earnings in a predictable pattern that allows Southern Company to plan its dividend growth with confidence not available to unregulated businesses. The company has maintained consistent dividend growth for over two decades. The $50 billion capital expenditure plan over the next five years represents the largest infrastructure buildout in the history of the American utility sector, driven by the combination of grid modernization requirements, renewable energy additions, and the data center construction wave spreading across Georgia and Alabama. Data center operators — including hyperscale cloud providers — are signing long-term power purchase agreements that give Southern Company revenue visibility extending 15 to 20 years and justify the capital investment required to build dedicated generation and transmission capacity. Market capitalization of approximately $95 billion places Southern Company among the largest utilities in North America, trading at a premium to most peers that reflects the southeastern growth market, the Vogtle nuclear baseload position, and the data center demand tailwind that differentiates the company's growth outlook from utilities serving slower-growing regions.
Revenue Trend Analysis
YoY Change
+6.5%
2-Year CAGR
+6%
Peak Year
2024
Trend
Consistent Growth
The Southern Company has reported revenue across 3 fiscal years, compounding at +6% annually over 2 years. The most recent year saw a 6.5% increase versus the prior year. Revenue peaked in 2024 at $29.3B. Out of 2 reported periods, 2 showed growth and 0 showed a decline.
| Fiscal Year | Revenue | Net Income | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2024 | $29.3B | $2.5B | +6.5% |
| FY2023 | $27.5B | — | +5.4% |
| FY2022 | $26.1B | — | — |
Source: SEC EDGAR filings, annual earnings releases, and verified financial disclosures.
Click any row to see year details.
Southern Company reported full-year 2023 operating revenue of approximately $25.3 billion, down from $29.3 billion in 2022 primarily because of lower natural gas commodity prices passed through to customers under fuel clauses, which compresses reported revenue without affecting earnings. Adjusted earnings per share were $3.95, at the top end of guidance, supported by Georgia Power retail revenue growth, Vogtle Unit 3 entering commercial operation on July 31, 2023, and strong performance at Southern Company Gas. Net income attributable to Southern was approximately $4.0 billion. The company maintained its 22-year track record of dividend growth, raising the quarterly dividend to $0.70 per share in April 2023 (an annualized rate of $2.80) and ending the year with a market capitalization around $76 billion. Capital expenditures were approximately $9 billion as Vogtle Unit 4 construction continued. Total debt at year-end stood near $63 billion reflecting heavy ongoing capital investment. Operating cash flow was about $7.5 billion. The financial profile remained anchored by regulated rate-base economics, with management reaffirming a long-term EPS growth target of 5 to 7 percent, supported by an updated five-year capital plan well above $40 billion focused on transmission, distribution, regulated generation and the gas LDCs.
Southern Company has paid a dividend on its common stock every quarter since 1948 and has increased the dividend for more than 20 consecutive years, placing it among the longest-running dividend payers in the S&P 500. The quarterly dividend was raised to $0.70 per share in April 2023 and to $0.72 in April 2024, putting the annualized rate at $2.88. With shares trading in the high $70s in 2024, the indicated dividend yield ran around 3.6 to 4.0 percent, materially higher than the S&P 500 average but in line with large regulated utility peers such as Duke Energy and American Electric Power. The payout ratio has historically been managed in the 70 to 80 percent range of operating EPS, leaving room for both reinvestment and gradual growth. The dividend culture is reinforced by Southern's retail and institutional shareholder base, which skews toward income-oriented investors and pension funds. Management has consistently treated the dividend as a non-negotiable element of total shareholder return, and during the Vogtle 3 and 4 cost overruns the company financed shortfalls through debt issuance and equity offerings rather than cutting the dividend, a discipline that distinguishes Southern from utilities that have reset payouts during stress.
Vogtle Units 3 and 4 are the single largest capital project in Southern Company's history and have materially increased the consolidated balance sheet. The two-reactor expansion at the Vogtle site in Burke County, Georgia, was originally projected to cost approximately $14 billion and come online in 2016 and 2017. The total project cost ballooned to more than $35 billion, with Georgia Power's share approximately $10 to $11 billion. Funding has come from a combination of customer recovery under Georgia's Nuclear Cost Recovery rider, parent-level debt issuance, hybrid securities, and equity issuance through Southern's at-the-market program. Total long-term debt has grown to roughly $60 billion or more by 2023, and the company has taken several billion dollars of impairment and charge-off losses related to the original Westinghouse contractor bankruptcy in 2017 and subsequent cost overruns. Credit rating agencies have maintained investment-grade ratings throughout, although Moody's, S&P and Fitch have all flagged execution risk and parent-level leverage during the construction phase. With Vogtle 3 commercially operating in July 2023 and Vogtle 4 entering commercial operation in April 2024, capital intensity is expected to decline somewhat while the regulated earnings base in Georgia steps up materially.
Southern Company's five-year capital plan announced in 2024 totals nearly $48 billion, one of the largest investment programs in the US utility sector. Spending is allocated across transmission and distribution upgrades, grid hardening for storm resilience, regulated generation additions including solar, batteries and natural gas, environmental compliance, and continued investment in the Southern Company Gas LDC footprint. With Vogtle 3 and 4 completed, the program no longer carries a single large lumpy nuclear project, but the overall scale is set to rise due to data center load growth in Georgia, which Georgia Power has flagged as a multi-gigawatt incremental demand opportunity. Financing relies on a mix of internally generated cash flow (around $7 billion of operating cash flow annually), long-term debt issuance at both the parent and operating-subsidiary levels, hybrid securities such as junior subordinated notes, and equity issuance through at-the-market programs. Management has guided to roughly $2 to $3 billion of annual equity needs depending on operating performance and rate case outcomes. The strategy keeps the consolidated capital structure consistent with regulated rate-making assumptions in each state, which is critical because authorized returns are set on a specific equity ratio in each jurisdiction.
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CorpDigest. "The Southern Company Revenue & Financials." CorpDigest, https://corpdigest.com/company/southern-company/financials.<div style="font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:1.5;border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:8px;padding:12px 16px;max-width:520px"><strong>The Southern Company reported $29B in revenue (FY2024).</strong><br>Source: <a href="https://corpdigest.com/company/southern-company/financials" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CorpDigest — The Southern Company financials</a></div>