Electric Utilities

• Get to Know this Rock Solid, Diversified Utility Company

  By Greg Williamson - March 4, 2013 | Tickers: CX, CHK, MDU

  Utility companies are sometimes thought of as boring, steady income opportunities with limited capital gain potential. However, over my 11 years of investing I have found that well-managed utility companies can provide significant capital gains as well as a growing income stream, resulting in excellent returns for patient, long term investors. Today, I am going to highlight MDU Resources (NYSE: MDU), which has been a rock solid performer for my more »

• Which Utility Company Earns 5 Stars?

  By Grant Hosticka - February 28, 2013 | Tickers: CNL, CPL, ^DJUSUT, EE, PPL, SJI

  The CAPS Stock Screener is one of my favorite tools, because adding the views of peers (CAPS Star Rating) can always be helpful.  Today we're going to look at some 5 Star Utilities, and come up with a winning investment.  Additional criteria on this preliminary screen included P/E (0-20), Dividend Yield (>3%), and Return on Equity (>10).  Here are the 5 star competitors.

  Company

  Market Cap

  P/E more »

• 3 Ways to Profit from the U.S. Debt Crisis that Wasn't

  By Justin Carley - February 22, 2013 | Tickers: AMLP, BP, EXC, RDS-A, TOT

  The biggest and most overblown fear factor circling the economy these days is that the U.S. faces a looming and inevitable debt crisis that will rival that of Greece.  Interest rates will soar and the depression will start.  Barron’s recent cover, “Next Stop, Greece” pumps up this false fear to unbeknownst investors.  Don’t fall prey to these false claims.  They have been ongoing for decades and will continue to go meritless in the next decade as well.  In fact, it is likely that interest rates will continue to hug the zero bound for longer than many anticipate.  At some point there will be some interest rate normalization- a real risk to both stocks and bonds- but this will likely come later than many expect.  Given the resilience in the U.S. economy many are wondering if the FED will raise rates sooner than 2015.  Don’t count on it.  Below are three industries poised to outperform amid continued low interest rates.

• Not All Dividends Are Desirable

  By Robert Zimmerman - February 20, 2013 | Tickers: ETP, EXC, SDRL

  Dividend income plays an important part of retirement planning.  Large dividends attract attention from those smart enough not to rely on Social Security for their retirement income.  While I like big yields as much as anyone, I’ve learned the hard way investing in high-yield companies requires due diligence as much as investing in growth or value companies.  Below are three examples of high-yield companies that require some work before more »

• Profit From Red Tape and Government Mandated Growth

  By Joshua Bondy - January 29, 2013 | Tickers: AEP, FE, ITC

  It is obvious that America needs to update her energy infrastructure and the government is willing to offer high ROE in order to spur new investment. Still, the approval of new interstate transmission lines can be a very costly and drawn out process. These political barriers benefit current insiders as they raise the barriers to entry. The strongest players in the transmission market are set to grow and profit along more »

• Increasing Natural Gas Prices and Utilities

  By Joshua Bondy - January 11, 2013 | Tickers: EXC, SO, WEC

  The natural gas glut couldn't last forever and now prices are starting to edge upward. The calming of the fracking boom means that natural gas is expected to keep rising for the time being. Utilities with a large amount of natural gas capacity and little coal capacity will be in a tougher situation than their competitors that have a large amount of coal capacity on which they can rely more »

• Income Now, Income Later, Part 2

  By Robert Zimmerman - January 4, 2013 | Tickers: EPD, EXC, XOM, MCD, CLX

  In the first part of this two part series, I reviewed three companies that a current retiree might use as sources of immediate income.  If you have some time before retirement, there are alternative investments that, in the long run, could provide more income than companies currently paying higher initial yields.  The key metric: dividend growth.

  Consider Exelon (NYSE: EXC), a utility company currently paying a 7% dividend.  We’ll more »

• Will Utility Companies Continue to Trade Down?

  By Lior Cohen - December 7, 2012 | Tickers: AEP, EXC, FE

  The top U.S utility companies, including FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) and Exelon (NYSE: EXC) continued to under-perform the market. Moreover, the recent quarterly report showed these companies didn’t do well. Will these companies' stocks further fall in the weeks to follow? Let’s examine the recent financial reports of these companies, the changes in these companies’ main inputs, and figure out where these companies are headed.

  During the year more »

• Green Utilities to Avoid and Others to Invest In

  By Joshua Bondy - November 5, 2012 | Tickers: CPN, ORA, WEC, XEL

  Going green is a great catchphrase, and evokes the image of running through a field of butterflies and dandelions. Sadly, a green economy cannot be effortlessly dreamed up, but instead needs to be created with real people and real investments. Some companies have been able to integrate green energy into their portfolio in a sustainable manner, while others have not been as successful. Smart investors are able to place their more »

• Hurricane Sandy and the Real Dividend Stocks of New Jersey

  By Jonathan Lim - November 1, 2012 | Tickers: FE, POM, PEG

  I've been to plenty of beaches, but for some reason the Jersey Shore has always been part of me. That's why it saddens me to see the havoc Hurricane Sandy wreaked on the region. The submerged houses and automobiles, the breached seawalls, and, above all, the lost memories are painful. Aggravating the situation, much of the coast remains off-limits, and thousands are without power.

  As one of the more »

• Think C-O-G to Buy Cabot Oil and Gas

  By Robert Zimmerman - October 24, 2012 | Tickers: COG, CRZO, CHK, DOW, WPZ

  Ten years ago, natural gas exploration and production in Appalachia generated little excitement.  Not much gas and no easy way to get it deflated enthusiasm for developing this resource.  Then, the combination of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) technology, improved horizontal drilling techniques and estimates of abundant gas reserves from geologists at Penn State and SUNY Fredonia changed everything.  Now, there was an estimated 50 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas more »

• Will The Utility Companies Rally by the End of 2012?

  By Lior Cohen - October 13, 2012 | Tickers: AEP, EXC, FE

  Major utility companies such as Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC) and FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) haven't perform well in recent months. Nonetheless, if the upcoming third quarter financial reports of these companies will be better than anticipated it could change the downward trend of these companies' stocks in the months to follow. Let's explore what is next for these companies and what might pull these companies' stocks up.

  Up to more »

• Export Natural Gas? Not a Good Idea

  By Robert Zimmerman - October 3, 2012 | Tickers: COG, LNG, HMC, SO, WPRT

  There has been a heated discussion regarding whether the Federal government should allow expanded exports of natural gas (liquefied natural gas or LNG, specifically) to countries without free trade agreements with the US.  The argument for allowing exports goes basically like this:  the US has gobs of natural gas with no end in sight.  The price of natural gas is dirt cheap.  Foreigners pay up to five times as much more »

• Southern Comfort, Utility Style

  By Robert Zimmerman - September 30, 2012 | Tickers: AEP, NEE, SO

  For years, electric utility companies have been converting their coal fired generators to natural gas.  The reason is simple: The price of converting to natural gas is cheaper than installing "clean coal" technology on existing coal burning plants.  Further, the price of coal has increased while natural gas has decreased.  In some respects, this is paying off for all Americans. The US Energy Information Administration recently announced the US is more »

• Brookfield’s Big Haul

  By Matthew DiLallo - August 6, 2012 | Tickers: BAM, BIP, PCL

  Usually when a company announces that it is about to undertake a myriad of strategic initiatives it more often than not means that the current approach just isn’t getting the job done.  Further, when they announce they are raising capital to pursue these strategic initiatives, it is done at a discount to the current share price because they need to money to shore up their capital base.  That is more »

• How to Fuel the Electric Car Future

  By Matthew Luke - June 1, 2012 | Tickers: F, GM, NRG, TSLA, TM |

  eVgo is America's first comprehensive, privately-funded electric vehicle infrastructure of home charging stations and public fast charging stations. The eVgo network is not depending on any government funding programs for development, operations or expansion.

• US Railroads and the Slump in Coal

  By Tony Daltorio - April 24, 2012 | Tickers: BRK-B, CSX, NSC, UNP

  The US railroad industry has always been the heart of the nation's industrial economy. If the country's major railroads – Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP), Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC), CSX (NYSE: CSX) and BNSF, owned by Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) – were in robust health, it meant good things for the economy. 

  But does that still hold true today? It may not, thanks to the impact that increased government environmental regulations more »

• GALP Goes Nuclear

  By Kirk Spano - March 14, 2012 | Tickers: DUK, EXC, GE, SO

  Cheap nuclear power might be the electricity in your portfolio as America rebounds.

• ABB and Siemens Power Ahead in Smart Grid Technology

  By Tony Daltorio - January 27, 2012 | Tickers: ABB, SI

  The debate over which electric transmission technology to use -- either AC (alternating current) or DC (direct current) -- goes back to the time of Thomas Edison, a proponent of DC.  

  AC seemed to have won the debate since it is the method that is widely used to bring power into our homes and businesses. But surprisingly, the debate is not settled. In a smart grid world, DC is making a comeback more »

• Exelon Adds Nuclear Capacity on the Cheap

  By Tony Daltorio - December 30, 2011 | Tickers: EXC, SCG

  Some companies in the U.S. electricity generation industry hava found a unique way to add nuclear generating capacity in a cost-efficient manner. 

  Most in the industry agree that the latest high-tech reactors are too expensive to build. So the focus by many utilities has instead been on squeezing more power out of existing nuclear power facilities. 

  Rather than constructing new plants, these electric companies are installing new instrumentation and more »

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