The Two Top Utility Stocks by Analyst Ratings

Some income investors chase yield; some income investors chase yield increasers; and some chase earnings increasers. Many investors look for some combination of these features or they have their own set of criteria. One other way is to see if there is a consensus among the analysts.

I checked the list of electric utilities against what the research analysts think about them. I looked at the S&P Capital IQ STARS with four or five stars, TheStreet Buy recommendations, the Buy recommendations of First Call Consensus, the Jaywalk Consensus of either Strong Buy, Buy, or Hold, the Market Edge Longs, Ford Buy or Holds, the ResearchTeam™ Current Rating of Buy or Hold, and Credit Suisse Outperform or Neutral. After running all stocks through my screen, I only came up with two electric utility stocks that met all that criteria.

NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE) is one of those two utilities. The company generates and markets electric energy in the United States and Canada, with about 4.6 million customers in Florida. The electrical generation comes from wind, solar, natural gas, nuclear, oil, coal, and hydro power plants. The stock trades at 14 times forward earnings and provides investors with a decent yield 3.4%. The company has increased dividends every year since 1994. Earnings for the latest quarter were up 2.0% on a 12.3% drop in revenues.

The other electric utility that came out of the filter is ITC Holdings Corp. (ITC), a Novi, Michigan utility involved in the transmission of electricity. Its customers include investor-owned utilities, municipalities, cooperatives, power marketers, and alternative energy suppliers. The stock trades at 15.5 times forward earnings and yields 1.9%. The company, which has increased dividends every year since 2005, raised the dividend earlier this year by 7%. Earnings for the latest quarter were up 16.5% on a 12.5% boost in revenues.

To access a free list of high yielding electric utilities, which can be downloaded, sorted, and updated, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fifth Week of November

  Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets. In flat or choppy markets, you have to be extremely careful, and may need to avoid the technique during those times.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. The list contains many dividend paying companies, all with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, the yield, and the market capitalization.

STMicroelectronics N.V. ADR (STM) 11/26/2012 6.5% $5.4B

Bank of Hawaii Corporation (BOH) 11/28/2012 3.9% $2.0B

Dominion Resources, Inc. (D) 11/28/2012 4.0% $30.1B

DNP Select Income Fund Inc. (DNP) 11/28/2012 7.9% $2.4B

NextEra Energy, Inc. (NEE) 11/28/2012 3.4% $29.5B

Sealed Air Corp (SEE) 11/28/2012 3.2% $3.1B

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List
Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Buying Dividends (Dividend Capture) book 25% Off
Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com