NRG Energy vs Southern

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The short version

NRG Energy is the larger business, with $30.7B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $29.6B for Southern.
Southern grew revenue faster (10.6%, against 9.2%).
Southern kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (24.7% operating margin, against 6.0%).
NRG Energy turned more of its sales into free cash flow (2.5% FCF margin, against −9.9%).
NRG Energy earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (10.9%, against 5.8%).
Investors pay more for each dollar of NRG Energy’s earnings: a P/E of 24.2x against 23.8x for Southern.

Latest fiscal year	NRG · FY25	SO · FY25
Size
Market cap	$19.6B	$104.8B
Revenue	$30.7B	$29.6B
Free cash flow	$766M	−$2.9B
Net income	$864M	$4.3B
Growth
Revenue growth	9.2%	10.6%
5-year growth	27.6%	7.7%
Share count change	−6.1%	0.6%
Profitability
Gross margin	—	—
Operating margin	6.0%	24.7%
Net margin	2.8%	14.7%
FCF margin	2.5%	−9.9%
Return on capital	10.9%	5.8%
Return on equity	41.6%	12.5%
Balance sheet
Net debt	$11.7B	$71.0B
Net debt / EBITDA	3.6x	5.3x
Dividends and buybacks	$1.7B	$3.0B
Valuation & quality
P/E	24.2x	23.8x
Piotroski F-score	6	4

Revenue

FY16

NRG $8.9B

SO $19.9B

FY17

NRG $9.1B

SO $23.0B

FY18

NRG $9.5B

SO $23.5B

FY19

NRG $9.8B

SO $21.4B

FY20

NRG $9.1B

SO $20.4B

FY21

NRG $27.0B

SO $23.1B

FY22

NRG $31.5B

SO $29.3B

FY23

NRG $28.8B

SO $25.3B

FY24

NRG $28.1B

SO $26.7B

FY25

NRG $30.7B

SO $29.6B

FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25

NRG SO

Operating margin

FY16

NRG 0.4%

SO 22.6%

FY17

NRG −8.2%

SO 10.1%

FY18

NRG 10.4%

SO 17.8%

FY19

NRG 13.1%

SO 36.1%

FY20

NRG 12.2%

SO 24.0%

FY21

NRG 12.4%

SO 16.0%

FY22

NRG 6.4%

SO 18.3%

FY23

NRG 1.3%

SO 23.1%

FY24

NRG 8.6%

SO 26.5%

FY25

NRG 6.0%

SO 24.7%

FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25

NRG SO

Free cash flow

FY16

NRG $1.4B

SO −$2.4B

FY17

NRG $1.4B

SO −$1.0B

FY18

NRG $989M

SO −$1.1B

FY19

NRG $1.2B

SO −$1.8B

FY20

NRG $1.6B

SO −$826M

FY21

NRG $224M

SO −$1.4B

FY22

NRG −$7.0M

SO −$1.6B

FY23

NRG −$819M

SO −$1.5B

FY24

NRG $1.8B

SO $833M

FY25

NRG $766M

SO −$2.9B

FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25

NRG SO

Return on capital

FY16

NRG 0.1%

SO 5.4%

FY17

NRG −3.8%

SO 2.8%

FY18

NRG 12.4%

SO 4.7%

FY19

NRG 21.1%

SO 7.4%

FY20

NRG 10.6%

SO 5.5%

FY21

NRG 28.2%

SO 4.0%

FY22

NRG 12.9%

SO 5.0%

FY23

NRG 2.4%

SO 5.5%

FY24

NRG 14.6%

SO 5.9%

FY25

NRG 10.9%

SO 5.8%

FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25

NRG SO

Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.