Roger S. Conrad

Three members of the Endangered Dividends List have cut their payouts since the October 2017 issue.

This under-the-radar utility recently established a new growth platform that should build wealth for shareholders.

Recent weakness in this telecom giant's share price belies its strong balance sheet, ample free cash flow and intermediate-term growth prospects.

The internet of things could be a game-change for electric utilities.

This midstream operator's third-quarter results surprised to the upside, but bigger-picture trends in the MLP space have prompted us to relocate this name to the Aggressive Income Portfolio.

Third-quarter earnings season is in full swing, bringing some upside and downside surprises for our Model Portfolio holdings.

The Trump administration has clearly gone all-in on turning the supposed war on coal into a war for coal, but the outcome will depend on electric utilities and power companies. We'll focus on the risks and opportunities associated with government intervention when we attend the Edison Electric Institute's financial conference in November.

The price is right after the recent selloff in big telecoms.

Rising electricity and natural-gas prices in Australia have padded AGL Energy's bottom line and contributed to tensions surrounding the company's long-standing plan to close the Liddell coal-fired power plant in 2022.

A record 67 of the 202 companies covered in our Utility Report Card rate a Sell. In some instances, these ratings reflect historically elevated valuations that give investors an opportunity to take profits before the inevitable reversion to the mean. Other Sell calls seek to help investors avoid genuinely weak companies at risk of a major blow-up. Fourteen of these stragglers appear on our Endangered Dividends List. Although many popular, large-capitalization utility stocks trade within a few percentage points of new all-time highs, the list of potential downside catalysts continues to grow. Utilities operating in Florida and on the Gulf Coast, for example, must deal with the aftermath of two of the most destructive hurricanes on record, increasing the risk that their response could fall short of customers and regulators’ expectations. (See Utilities and Hurricanes: Responding to Harvey and Irma.) Concerns about rising interest rates could also provide an excuse to take profits, while the Trump administration has sought to intervene in highly competitive wholesale-electricity markets. Since the September issue of Conrad’s Utility Investor hit the web, Utilities Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLU) has lagged the S&P 500 by 6.5 percentage points—a degree of underperformance that could portend further weakness for the sector. On the other hand, the market can remain irrational much longer than investors expect. Moreover, all signs point to a strong earnings season for many of the companies in our Utility Report Card. And buying opportunities still exist at this stage in the cycle. Company-specific developments have prompted us to raise our buy targets on several Portfolio holdings, including this month’s aggressive spotlight. The feature article also identifies which names would benefit from the Trump administration’s proposed intervention in wholesale power markets.