Contrasting Southern (NYSE:SO) and Polar Power (NASDAQ:POLA)

Polar Power (NASDAQ:POLA) and Southern (NYSE:SO) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Volatility & Risk

Polar Power has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southern has a beta of 0.36, meaning that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

26.1% of Polar Power shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.1% of Southern shares are owned by institutional investors. 30.8% of Polar Power shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Southern shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Polar Power and Southern”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Polar Power	$6.30 million	1.10	-$9.13 million	($3.59)	-0.53
Southern	$29.55 billion	3.66	$4.34 billion	$3.93	24.40

Southern has higher revenue and earnings than Polar Power. Polar Power is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Southern, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Polar Power and Southern’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Polar Power	-144.88%	-211.39%	-65.33%
Southern	14.46%	12.64%	3.17%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Polar Power and Southern, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Polar Power	1	0	0	0	1.00
Southern	1	12	7	0	2.30

Southern has a consensus target price of $99.85, indicating a potential upside of 4.14%. Given Southern’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Southern is more favorable than Polar Power.

Summary

Southern beats Polar Power on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Polar Power

Polar Power, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells direct current (DC) power generators, renewable energy, and cooling systems in the United States and internationally. The company offers DC base power systems, DC hybrid power systems, DC solar hybrid power systems, and mobile power systems. Its DC power systems are available in diesel, natural gas, LPG/propane, and renewable fuel formats. It serves customers in the telecommunications, military, commercial, industrial, and marine markets. In addition, the company sells its products through a direct sales force, and independent service providers and dealers. The company was formerly known as Polar Products, Inc. and changed its name to Polar Power, Inc. in October 1991. Polar Power, Inc. was incorporated in 1979 and is based in Gardena, California.

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.