“The Southern Company (SO 44.26 NYSE – yield 4.60%)—Of Fortune Magazine’s ‘Most Admired Electric and Gas Utilities,’ The Southern Company has scored first place in financial soundness each of the last four years. Southern’s service area stretches across the states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, where it serves 4.4 million residents. Southern Co. owns 46,000 megawatts of electrical generating capacity. Alongside Southern’s power business, it is active in telecommunications and wireless communications. Southern Company’s board of directors has chosen to raise the company’s dividend in each of the last 12 years. This steady string of dividend increases has allowed Southern to maintain a dividend yield of over 4.3%, even while the price of the company’s stock has increased by more than 100% over the same time period. My investment thesis for Southern Company is simple: Southern’s regulated monopoly status makes its business much more resistant to economic downturns and competition. Keep it simple. You can see on my long-term chart that even after a recent run-up, Southern’s price is below its long-term trend. Buy.”
Richard C. Young, Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report, www.intelligencereport.com, 800-301-8968, June 2013
