SO Southern Co

   By Bowdeya Tweh 
 

Utility-holding company Southern Co. (SO) released its first-quarter financial report Wednesday before the market opened. Here's what you need to know:

PROFIT: Southern reported its quarterly profit rose 41% from a year earlier to $942 million, or 92 cents a share, beating internal forecasts. Recent U.S. tax law changes boosted its bottom line, helping reduce the company's income tax expense by $202 million from the prior-year quarter.

REVENUE: Operating revenue rose 10% to $6.37 billion. Retail electric revenue rose 5.1% to $3.57 billion, helped by colder temperatures earlier this year. Natural gas revenue rose 5% to $1.61 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected $5.87 billion in revenue.

ASSET MOVES: The sale of two of its natural gas distribution utilities, Elizabethtown Gas and Elkton Gas, to South Jersey Industries Inc. are expected to close in the third quarter, the company said. The sale of its Pivotal Home Solutions business to American Water Enterprises LLC for about $365 million is expected to close by the end of the second quarter. Southern Power is working to sell a 33% interest in a holding company that owns roughly all of its solar facilities and wants to close such a deal in mid-2018.

STOCK: Shares, down 7.5% over the past year, were inactive in premarket trading.

Write to Bowdeya Tweh at bowdeya.tweh@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 02, 2018 07:28 ET (11:28 GMT)

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