Contrasting Southern (NYSE:SO) & Centuri (NYSE:CTRI)

Centuri (NYSE:CTRI) and Southern (NYSE:SO) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Centuri and Southern, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Centuri	2	1	2	0	2.00
Southern	1	10	5	0	2.25

Centuri currently has a consensus price target of $19.60, suggesting a potential downside of 10.13%. Southern has a consensus price target of $93.53, suggesting a potential downside of 0.82%. Given Southern’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Southern is more favorable than Centuri.

Volatility & Risk

Centuri has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southern has a beta of 0.38, suggesting that its share price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Centuri and Southern”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Centuri	$2.66 billion	0.73	-$6.72 million	$0.02	1,090.50
Southern	$26.72 billion	3.88	$4.40 billion	$4.19	22.51

Southern has higher revenue and earnings than Centuri. Southern is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Centuri, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

64.1% of Southern shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Centuri shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Southern shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Centuri and Southern’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Centuri	0.02%	5.16%	1.32%
Southern	16.54%	12.70%	3.22%

Summary

Southern beats Centuri on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Centuri

Centuri Holdings, Inc. operates as a utility infrastructure services company in North America. It offers gas utility services, including maintenance, repair, installation, and replacement services for natural gas local distribution utility companies with focus on the modernization of infrastructure. The company also provides electric utility services comprising design, maintenance and repair, upgrade, and expansion services for transmission and distribution infrastructure. Its customers include electric, gas, and combination utility companies, as well as serves end markets, such as renewable energy and 5G datacom. The company was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Centuri Holdings, Inc. is a subsidiary of Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc.

About Southern

The Southern Company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. The company also develops, constructs, acquires, owns, and manages power generation assets, including renewable energy projects and sells electricity in the wholesale market; and distributes natural gas in Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee, as well as provides gas marketing services, gas distribution operations, and gas pipeline investments operations. In addition, it owns and operates nuclear, coal, hydro, cogeneration, solar, wind, battery storage, and fuel cell facilities. Further, the constructs, operates, and maintains approximately 77,900 miles of natural gas pipelines and 14 storage facilities with total capacity of 157 Bcf to provide natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The company serves approximately 8.9 million electric and gas utility customers. Further, it develops distributed energy and resilience solutions; deploys microgrids for commercial, industrial, governmental, and utility customers; and offers digital wireless communications and fiber optics services. The Southern Company was incorporated in 1945 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.