Southern Company (NYSE: SO) Financials: Debunking Silver Project Rumors and HSBC's Buy Rating

• Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an electric and gas utility, unrelated to a Mexican silver project.
• HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: HSBC) initiated coverage on Southern Company with a Buy rating, with shares trading at $90.39 at the time.
• Southern Company reported strong financials, including quarterly revenue of $6.98 billion, a gross profit of $3.58 billion, and a trailing-twelve-month operating profit margin of 24.2%.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an electric and gas utility. It is not Southern Silver, the mining company in a headline about a large-scale silver project in Mexico, as highlighted by Newsfile. The supplied information shows no connection between the project and Southern Company, and reports no Southern Company stock-price movement.

HSBC Holdings plc (NYSE: HSBC) initiated coverage of Southern Company with a Buy rating. The shares traded at $90.39 when the rating was published. A Buy rating is an analyst’s opinion, not evidence that the silver-project headline affected the stock.

Southern Company reported quarterly revenue of $6.98 billion and a cost of revenue of $3.40 billion, leaving gross profit of $3.58 billion. Operating expenses were $1.80 billion. Its trailing-twelve-month operating profit margin was 24.2%, meaning operating profit equaled 24.2% of revenue over that period.

Southern Company’s asset turnover ratio was 0.19, a measure of how much revenue it generates from its assets. Its inventory turnover ratio was 5.17, which measures how often inventory is used or replaced. Quarterly inventory was $3.31 billion, while net property, plant, and equipment totaled $120.42 billion.