Electric Utility Dividend Increasers

Some of the electric utilities have been declaring dividend increases this month. A couple examples are Oklahoma City based OGE Energy Corp. (OGE) boosted its annual dividend by 4.7% and Edison International (EIX), which serves southern California, recently bumped up its quarterly dividend by 1.56%

OGE provides electrical generation to Oklahoma and western Arkansas. It also owns over 5,900 miles of intrastate natural gas gathering pipelines. The stock trades at 16 times current earnings and 15 times future earnings, and provides a yield of 3.0% based on its increased payout. Earnings for the latest quarter were up 9.6% on a 7.7% increase in revenues. The company is currently subject to a proposed rate increase hearing by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission's Public Utility Division. The company is asking to raise its rates by about $73 million.

Edison International has a price to earnings ratio of 13 and a forward PE of 15. Based in the dividend increase, the stock yields 3.3%. Revenues grew by 5.1% for the latest quarter, however earnings dropped 16.5%. In September of this year, FBR Capital initiated coverage of the company giving it and Outperform rating and Wunderlich upgraded the stock from a Hold to a Buy. This Rosemead, California company has 700 distribution substations located throughout California. It has four wind projects under construction totaling 480 megawatts of net generating capacity.

Top features of electric utilities include the fact that they can generally provide relative security, safety, and stability compared to stocks in many other sectors, due to the payment of fairly high dividends. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com just updated its free list of electric utility stocks and there are more than 20 with yields greater than 3%.

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

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fourth Week of June

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.

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 market capitalization, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL) market cap: $12.1B ex div date: 6/21/2011 yield: 4.1%

Portland General Electric Company (POR) market cap: $1.9B ex div date: 6/22/2011 yield: 4.2%

Edison International (EIX) market cap: $12.9B ex div date: 6/28/2011 yield: 3.2%

National Health Investors Inc (NHI) market cap: $1.3B ex div date: 6/28/2011 yield: 5.3%

Corporate Office Properties Trust (OFC) market cap: $2.3B ex div date: 6/28/2011 yield: 4.8%

TransCanada Corporation (TRP) market cap: $30.3B ex div date: 6/28/2011 yield: 3.9%

Starwood Property Trust, Inc. (STWD) market cap: $2.0B ex div date: 6/28/2011 yield: 8.2%

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.

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.

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

Get a Charge Out of High Yield Electric Utilities

There are many factors affecting the revenues and earnings of electric utilities. The sway of the Public Utilities Commissions, the source of fuel to run the generators along with the cost of the fuel, the efficiency of the organization, growth in the area served from both commercial and residential (don't see much of that lately), and many other factors. But if investors want a simple way of finding which electric utility stocks are successful with many of these issues, one way is to check and see if the companies have increased their dividend.

One example is OGE Energy Corp. (OGE), which pays one of the lowest yields of the top 30 electric utilities at 3.3% but has been increasing its dividend over time, providing annual increases since 2006. The company announced this month that it is increasing its annual dividend to $1.50 per share from $1.45 per share, effective the first quarter of 2011. OGE, which provides electricity in Oklahoma and western Arkansas, trades at 15 times forward earnings.

DPL Inc. (DPL) is another utility with a rising track record, increasing the quarterly dividend from $0.3025 to $0.3325 per common share this month, giving the stock a great CD beating yield of 4.6%. Dividends has risen every year since 2003. The stock has a forward price to earnings ratio of 10.8.

Edison International (EIX) also announced an increase in the annual dividend, from $1.26 per share to $1.28 per share. Dividends have been boosted since 2004. The stock trades at 12.8 times forward earnings and pays a yield of 3.3%.

To see a free Excel list of all the top yield electric utility stocks which can be downloaded, sorted, and updated, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

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

By Stockerblog.com

What Sector has Significantly Outperformed the S&P 500 Last 6 Months

There is one investment sector that has significantly outperformed the S&P 500 during the last six months, and for that matter, outperformed over the last five years. You may be surprised to hear that this sector has previously been considered an income investment, not a growth investment. If you haven't guessed it by now, the sector I am referring to is utilities. That's right, the sector that includes such companies as American Electric Power (AEP), Dominion Resources (D), Edison International (EIX), and Southern Company (SO), all components of the Dow Jones Utility Index.

Over the last six months, the Utility Index was up about 5.2%, whereas the S&P 500 was down by 2.4%, a 7.6 percentage point difference. And if you compare the two indexes over a five year period, the utilities outperformed the S&P by four percentage points. The best feature about utility stocks is the high yield that many generate. For example, according to the recently updated list of high yield electric utility stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, there are over 30 that pay a dividend in excess of 4%.

As an example, Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED), the utility that serves New York City and Westchester County, yields 4.8% and sports a forward PE ratio of 14. Total dividend payouts of $672.6 million are very well covered by the company's operating cash flow of $1.82 billion.

Another high yielder on the list is Ameren Corporation (AEE), which serves Illinois and Missouri. The stock pays a 5.3% yield and trades at 12 times forward earnings. Total dividend payouts of $368.4 million are extremely well covered by the company's operating cash flow of $1.88 billion.

To see the rest of the high yield electric utilities, you can get a free list, which can be downloaded, changed, and updated, at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com