Feature Article

Carlos Slim’s America Movil (Mexico: AMXL, NYSE: AMX) today is a global powerhouse serving nearly 280 million wireless and 85 million wireline customers in more than a dozen countries. Mexico is most important at a third of revenue, followed by Brazil at 20 percent and the US at 15 percent.

Outside of regulated utilities, no group of companies has demonstrated greater long-term resilience than super oils like Top 10 DRIP Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX). That’s still true despite what many consider their greatest challenge yet: Global decarbonization.

There are about three months remaining in 2019, and much can still happen. But up to now, it’s been a quite profitable year for Conrad’s Utility Investor Portfolios.

Buckeye Partners (NYSE: BPL) exited the Endangered Dividends List last spring, following its all-cash takeover offer of $41.50 per share from Australia’s IGM Investors in May. Last week, the deal inched closer to a fourth quarter 2019 close, as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US and Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission signed off.

The Dow Jones Utility Average has returned 15.1 percent annually since the start of the bull market in March 2009. So far in 2019, the pace has been twice that.

Utility stocks have benefitted from the desire to buy American in a trade challenged world, their reputation for solid defense, falling interest rates’ positive impact on borrowing costs and yield appeal, and the outlook for accelerating earnings growth next year while other industries stall.

Roughly a year ago, deep-pocketed Global Infrastructure Partners replaced downsizing NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) as Clearway Energy’s (NYSE: CWEN) primary owner and sponsor. We immediately added the yieldco to our Aggressive Holdings, anticipating faster cash flow and dividend growth.

Over the past 15 years, Conservative Holding Pembina Pipeline Corp (TSX: PPL, NYSE: PBA) has endured two wholesale depressions in Alberta’s energy patch—and the Canadian government’s death sentence on its former income trust structure.

A record two-dozen CUI Portfolio companies currently trade above my recommended entry points. That’s to be expected in an environment where investors are seeking safety and yield. And utility stocks offer the added bonus of earning most or all revenue in the US while realizing strong, reliable earnings growth from renewable energy, 5-G and other transforming technologies.

Just because someone is offering doesn’t necessarily mean anyone will buy. That’s the hard lesson for shareholders of retail energy marketer Just Energy Group (TSX: JE, NYSE: JE). The stock has lost nearly -70 percent of its value since management announced a “strategic review” due to “outside interest” in early June.

From the time Thomas Edison threw the first switch and Alexander Graham Bell completed the first phone call, essential services companies have been on a relentless quest for scale. And since such businesses rarely fail, the primary method has been mergers and acquisitions.