Analyzing Southern (NYSE:SO) and Spark Infrastructure Group (OTCMKTS:SFDPF)

Southern (NYSE:SO) and Spark Infrastructure Group (OTCMKTS:SFDPF) are both utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Southern and Spark Infrastructure Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Southern	2	11	7	0	2.25
Spark Infrastructure Group	0	0	0	0	0.00

Southern presently has a consensus target price of $100.26, indicating a potential upside of 8.00%. Given Southern’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Southern is more favorable than Spark Infrastructure Group.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

64.1% of Southern shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Southern shares are owned 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.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Southern and Spark Infrastructure Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Southern	$29.55 billion	3.61	$4.34 billion	$4.17	22.26
Spark Infrastructure Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Southern has higher revenue and earnings than Spark Infrastructure Group.

Profitability

This table compares Southern and Spark Infrastructure Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern	15.43%	12.93%	3.28%
Spark Infrastructure Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Southern beats Spark Infrastructure Group on 9 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Spark Infrastructure Group

Spark Infrastructure Group engages in investment in regulated utility infrastructure. It operates through the following segments: Victoria Power Networks, SA Power Networks, Transgrid, and Bomen Group. The Victoria Power Networks segment holds interests in CitiPower and Powercor. The SA Power Networks segment covers interests in electricity distribution in South Australia. The TransGrid segment includes interests in electricity transmission businesses in New South Wales. The Bomen Solar Farm segment owns Bomen Solar Farm HoldCo Pty Ltd. and Bomen Solar Farm Hold Trust. The company was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.