Investing Topics: Regulated Utilities

Dominion Resources (NYSE: D) shares hit an all-time high this week. The catalyst: A proposed spin off of the company’s natural gas assets into a master limited partnership (MLP), with an initial public offering in the second quarter of 2014.

Here’s the news from our Portfolio holdings over the past week. 

Utilities pay some of the safest and highest dividends on Wall Street. But they’re stocks, not substitute investments for bonds.

Those who’ve tried to treat them like bonds have consistently underestimated their returns in bull markets, as well as downside in bear markets. Similarly, those who’ve bought when interest rates were falling and sold when rates have risen have routinely paid too much and sold too cheaply. And occasionally as in 2008, they’ve had their heads handed to them.

Big picture themes always grab investing headlines. Success, however, flows from knowing what’s up with individual companies.

Regulated water utilities, for example, are on their face the very simplest and uniform of businesses. Yet so far in 2013, returns from the 10 companies I track in the Utility Report Card have ranged from a 26 percent gain to barely breaking even.

Investors are dumping dividend-paying stocks of strong companies due to misplaced fears about interest rate sensitivity. That’s opening up new opportunities in our favorite stocks, but be patient with prices.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) currently sits near a new 52-week low. The reason: A combination of investor worries about rising interest rates and concern about its substantial capital spending program.

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.

Hydroelectric power is the world’s cleanest and cheapest source of baseload power. And with 5,900 megawatts of installed capacity and a full pipeline of new projects, Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (TSX: BEP-U, NYSE: BEP) is the world’s premier pure play.

Discipline, consistency and hard work don’t always guarantee success. But they're the necessary foundation of every winning investment strategy.

Utility stocks might be due for a pullback, but the risks that rising interest rates pose to the sector are overblown.