Duke Energy vs Southern

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The short version

Duke Energy is the larger business, with $31.7B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $29.6B for Southern.
Southern grew revenue faster (10.6%, against 5.6%).
Duke Energy kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (27.2% operating margin, against 24.7%).
Duke Energy turned more of its sales into free cash flow (−5.3% FCF margin, against −9.9%).
Investors pay more for each dollar of Southern’s earnings: a P/E of 23.8x against 19.1x for Duke Energy.

Latest fiscal year	DUK · FY25	SO · FY25
Size
Market cap	$97.4B	$104.8B
Revenue	$31.7B	$29.6B
Free cash flow	−$1.7B	−$2.9B
Net income	$5.0B	$4.3B
Growth
Revenue growth	5.6%	10.6%
5-year growth	6.4%	7.7%
Share count change	0.7%	0.6%
Profitability
Gross margin	—	—
Operating margin	27.2%	24.7%
Net margin	15.7%	14.7%
FCF margin	−5.3%	−9.9%
Return on capital	5.5%	5.8%
Return on equity	9.7%	12.5%
Balance sheet
Net debt	$90.2B	$71.0B
Net debt / EBITDA	5.5x	5.3x
Dividends and buybacks	$3.3B	$3.0B
Valuation & quality
P/E	19.1x	23.8x
Piotroski F-score	5	4

Revenue

FY16

DUK $22.7B

SO $19.9B

FY17

DUK $23.6B

SO $23.0B

FY18

DUK $23.8B

SO $23.5B

FY19

DUK $24.3B

SO $21.4B

FY20

DUK $23.3B

SO $20.4B

FY21

DUK $24.5B

SO $23.1B

FY22

DUK $28.7B

SO $29.3B

FY23

DUK $28.7B

SO $25.3B

FY24

DUK $30.1B

SO $26.7B

FY25

DUK $31.7B

SO $29.6B

FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25

DUK SO

Operating margin

FY16

DUK 22.9%

SO 22.6%

FY17

DUK 23.9%

SO 10.1%

FY18

DUK 19.7%

SO 17.8%

FY19

DUK 23.5%

SO 36.1%

FY20

DUK 19.7%

SO 24.0%

FY21

DUK 22.5%

SO 16.0%

FY22

DUK 21.0%

SO 18.3%

FY23

DUK 24.7%

SO 23.1%

FY24

DUK 26.4%

SO 26.5%

FY25

DUK 27.2%

SO 24.7%

FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25

DUK SO

Free cash flow

FY16

DUK −$1.0B

SO −$2.4B

FY17

DUK −$1.4B

SO −$1.0B

FY18

DUK −$2.2B

SO −$1.1B

FY19

DUK −$2.9B

SO −$1.8B

FY20

DUK −$1.1B

SO −$826M

FY21

DUK −$1.4B

SO −$1.4B

FY22

DUK −$5.4B

SO −$1.6B

FY23

DUK −$2.7B

SO −$1.5B

FY24

DUK $48.0M

SO $833M

FY25

DUK −$1.7B

SO −$2.9B

FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25

DUK SO

Return on capital

FY16

DUK 4.2%

SO 5.4%

FY17

DUK 4.3%

SO 2.8%

FY18

DUK 4.1%

SO 4.7%

FY19

DUK 4.7%

SO 7.4%

FY20

DUK 4.1%

SO 5.5%

FY21

DUK 4.4%

SO 4.0%

FY22

DUK 4.6%

SO 5.0%

FY23

DUK 5.0%

SO 5.5%

FY24

DUK 5.3%

SO 5.9%

FY25

DUK 5.5%

SO 5.8%

FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25

DUK 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.