Quarterly Earnings

Only two Portfolio holdings have yet to turn in earnings this reporting season. Aggressive Holding ENEL SPA (Italy: ENEL, OTC: ENLAY) will unveil its fourth quarter 2013 numbers on March 11. Conservative Holding Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) releases its first quarter fiscal 2014 results on March 7.

Almost anything can affect stock prices in the near term. Long-term, earnings and dividend growth are what counts.

As goes January, so goes the year. That old Wall Street adage doesn’t bode well for most of the stock market.

Taper talk is heating up again as Federal Reserve Chairman-in-waiting Janet Yellen’s fate is debated on Capitol Hill. Rate hike speculation, however, is having much less impact on essential services stocks than it did this past spring. And one big reason is strong third quarter results.

Only three of the 28 current Conrad’s Utility Investor Portfolio recommendations have yet to report calendar third quarter earnings. That’s plenty of data to identify relevant sector trends, while we assess the health of individual companies.

Since the November issue of Conrad’s Utility Investor went to post, five more portfolio companies have reported calendar third quarter 2013 results. Here are the highlights.

AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) was the only Conrad’s Utility Investor Portfolio pick to report numbers last week. Takeaway one is quite positive: The results followed closely those of arch-rival and co-Big Two US communications company Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ).

Earnings season is now underway for the Conrad’s Utility Investor portfolios, with Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP) and Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) the first to report full numbers.

There weren't any big surprises in our Focus List earnings reports this quarter, which is the way we like it. But there are a lot of bargains in all three portfolios that you can move into now. The story of essential service stocks is just beginning.

The book is now almost closed on calendar first quarter 2013 earnings for my 45 Target List stocks. Utilities and other essential services stocks had a big run to start 2013. As a result, several target list companies have surged well beyond what I’d pay for them. Have a look at my current advice.