Southern earnings: third quarter 2026

Southern, the American electricity and gas company, had a strong third quarter of 2026. Sales rose 13% to $8.8 billion, helped by warmer weather, more customers, higher use and more business from large customers. Profit grew faster than sales, led by its Georgia power company. Higher interest, taxes and running costs, and more shares in issue, held part of the gain back. ¹

Against what analysts expected

Analysts on average expected earnings per share of $1.71 (Nasdaq's earnings calendar). Southern reported $1.77, and $1.94 on its own adjusted measure. The forecast sits much closer to the reported figure, so it is set against that: about 3.5% above what analysts expected. ¹²

The strong points

• Sales rose 13% from a year earlier to $8.8 billion, nearly twice the pace of the year so far. ¹
• The company's own adjusted earnings per share, which leave out one-off items, rose to $1.94 from $1.60 a year earlier. ¹
• Georgia Power, its biggest business, raised its profit by 22% to just over $1.5 billion. ¹

The weak points

• Interest costs rose 11.5% in the quarter, to $842 million. ¹
• More shares in issue took 9 cents off earnings per share, and taxes other than income tax and running costs also climbed. ¹
• Warmer weather alone added 15 cents to earnings per share this quarter. ¹

What the company expects

• Southern now expects about $100 million of further wind-farm upgrade costs for the rest of 2026, against about $205 million it had expected for the year last time. ¹
• For 2027 it raised its estimate of those wind-farm upgrade costs to about $135 million, from about $120 million. ¹

Our verdict on the quarter

A strong report. Profit per share came in above what analysts expected and both sales and profit grew solidly, though the company gave no new forecast for its profit, and some of the gain came from warm weather.

The results as published

• The results release itself
• The filing it came with (SEC)
• The previous results, for what it forecast then

Notes

1. Southern's results release, 5 November 2026: sec.gov. ↩
2. Nasdaq's earnings calendar, 5 November 2026. ↩