Southern Company (The) — Earnings Quality Grade F
SO · Utilities
Major red flags
Screening Summary
Financial Trends
Revenue & Net Income ($B)
Margins (%)
18-Point Screening
Revenue Quality
DSO 28 days, change -3 days YoY
AR growth 1.0% vs revenue growth 10.6%
Revenue grew 10.6% but CFFO only 0.1%
Expense Quality
Inventory -1.1% vs COGS 14.0%. Normal
CapEx growth 42.2% is >2x revenue growth 10.6%
Insufficient data
Gross margin 48.5%, change -1.5pp. Stable
Cash Flow Quality
CFFO/NI = 2.26. Profits backed by cash
FCF < 50% of Net Income for 3 years
Accruals ratio = -3.5%. Low accruals
Cash $1.6B covers only 2% of debt $74.1B
Balance Sheet Health
Goodwill+Intangibles $5.5B = 15% of equity. Manageable
Debt/EBITDA = 5.2x (>4x). Financial stress
Insufficient data
No write-off data
Acquisition Risk
FCF after acquisitions negative for 2/3 years
Goodwill+Intangibles change -1% YoY. Normal
Manipulation Score
Insufficient data
Altman Z-Score
Generated from public financial data using forensic accounting frameworks. Not investment advice. Data: Yahoo Finance · 2026-04-10