American Electric Power

AEP · Electric Utilities

$129.69

0.7%

Southern

SO · Electric Utilities

$92.89

1.0%

The short version

Southern is the larger business, with $29.6B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $21.9B for American Electric Power.
American Electric Power turned more of its sales into free cash flow (−6.9% FCF margin, against −9.9% FCF margin).
American Electric Power earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (6.7%, against 5.8%).
Investors pay more for each dollar of Southern’s earnings: a P/E of 23.8x against 19.2x for American Electric Power.

Latest fiscal year	AEP · FY25	SO · FY25
Size
Market cap	$71.0B	$104.8B
Revenue	$21.9B	$29.6B
Free cash flow	−$1.5B	−$2.9B
Net income	$3.7B	$4.3B
Growth
Revenue growth	10.9%	10.6%
5-year growth	8.0%	7.7%
Share count change	1.2%	0.6%
Profitability
Gross margin	—	—
Operating margin	24.3%	24.7%
Net margin	16.9%	14.7%
FCF margin	−6.9%	−9.9%
Return on capital	6.7%	5.8%
Return on equity	12.7%	12.5%
Balance sheet
Net debt	$48.6B	$71.0B
Net debt / EBITDA	5.6x	5.3x
Dividends and buybacks	$2.0B	$3.0B
Valuation & quality
P/E	19.2x	23.8x
Piotroski F-score	7	4

Revenue

FY16

AEP $16.4B

SO $19.9B

FY17

AEP $15.4B

SO $23.0B

FY18

AEP $16.2B

SO $23.5B

FY19

AEP $15.6B

SO $21.4B

FY20

AEP $14.9B

SO $20.4B

FY21

AEP $16.8B

SO $23.1B

FY22

AEP $19.6B

SO $29.3B

FY23

AEP $19.0B

SO $25.3B

FY24

AEP $19.7B

SO $26.7B

FY25

AEP $21.9B

SO $29.6B

FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25

AEP SO

Operating margin

FY16

AEP 7.1%

SO 22.6%

FY17

AEP 22.9%

SO 10.1%

FY18

AEP 16.6%

SO 17.8%

FY19

AEP 16.7%

SO 36.1%

FY20

AEP 20.0%

SO 24.0%

FY21

AEP 20.3%

SO 16.0%

FY22

AEP 17.7%

SO 18.3%

FY23

AEP 18.7%

SO 23.1%

FY24

AEP 21.8%

SO 26.5%

FY25

AEP 24.3%

SO 24.7%

FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25

AEP SO

Free cash flow

FY16

AEP −$259M

SO −$2.4B

FY17

AEP −$1.4B

SO −$1.0B

FY18

AEP −$1.1B

SO −$1.1B

FY19

AEP −$1.8B

SO −$1.8B

FY20

AEP −$2.4B

SO −$826M

FY21

AEP −$1.8B

SO −$1.4B

FY22

AEP −$1.4B

SO −$1.6B

FY23

AEP −$2.4B

SO −$1.5B

FY24

AEP −$827M

SO $833M

FY25

AEP −$1.5B

SO −$2.9B

FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25

AEP SO

Return on capital

FY16

AEP 3.0%

SO 5.4%

FY17

AEP 5.9%

SO 2.8%

FY18

AEP 6.0%

SO 4.7%

FY19

AEP 5.5%

SO 7.4%

FY20

AEP 5.7%

SO 5.5%

FY21

AEP 5.8%

SO 4.0%

FY22

AEP 5.6%

SO 5.0%

FY23

AEP 5.2%

SO 5.5%

FY24

AEP 6.2%

SO 5.9%

FY25

AEP 6.7%

SO 5.8%

FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25

AEP SO

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