11 Electric Utilities Paying More than 6% Dividend Yields

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Electric utility stocks are considered to defensive stocks as they offer relatively stable and steady growth. Investors are also attracted to them because of their excellent dividend yields. Since electricity is a basic necessity most people pay their bills on time unlike cell phone services and other items.

The utility sector is highly regulated in most parts of the world. In many markets electric companies operate as monopolies. This is especially true in most emerging countries where until recently industries such as the power sector were under the control of governments. The demand for power is growing rapidly in emerging countries such as China, India, Brazil, etc. due to the boom in infrastructure buildup and usage by consumers.

The table below lists electric utility stocks paying more than 6% dividends based on the closing price on January 13, 2010:

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CPFL Energia S.A (CPL) of Brazil had 6.4 million consumers at the end of 2008. The annual average EPS growth in the last 5 years was about 35%. The rest of the stocks in the above list are utilities based in the US.  Progress Energy(PGN) distributes electricity in portions of North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida and has 3.1 million residential customers. Xcel Energy Inc and Dominion Resources(DRU) Inc have 7%+ yields.Dominion serves customers in 12 states. Minneapolis,MN-based Xcel Energy(XCJ) operates both in the electricity and natural gas sector and has 3.4 million retail electricity customers in eight Western and Midwestern states.

36 Major Global Risks in 2010

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The World Economic Forum yesterday released the Global Risks 2010, its annual report on the most important risks facing the global economy this year and beyond.

Graphic

Global-Risks-2010

This  year’s report “highlights the impact of the fiscal crisis and the social and political implications of high unemployment rates in several major economies as key concerns. Notably, the current models for health, education and unemployment protection have been put under severe strain by the fiscal crisis, notwithstanding the longer-term implications of increasing life expectancy.”

More details can be found here.

9 Foreign Stocks Yielding More Than 5% Dividends

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In August 2008, I ran the stock screener with the following criteria:

1. Stocks must trade on the NYSE
2. Market cap. >= $25B
3. Must have dividend yields of at least 5%

This resulted in 28 stocks at that time. 14 of these stocks were in the financial sector and 21 were non-US companies.

When I ran the stock screener with the same conditions today, just 15 stocks are displayed. Many of the stocks that appeared in the 2008 list are not present now. After the global credit crisis banks slashed dividend payments and hence they did not make it to this list with the exception of Bank of Montreal.

Foreign stocks paying at least 5% dividend and trading on the NYSE are:

1.Bank of Montreal(BMO)
Current Dividend Yield: 5.24%
Canada

2.BP Plc(BP)
Current Dividend Yield: 5.16%
U.K.

3.Deutsche Telekom AG(DT)
Current Dividend Yield: 7.07%
Germany

4.Eni Spa(E)
Current Dividend Yield: 5.57%
Italy

5.France Telecom(FTE)
Current Dividend Yield: 6.73%
France

6.Telefonica (TEF)
Current Dividend Yield: 5.54%
Spain

7.Total SA(TOT)
Current Dividend Yield: 5.13%
France

8.Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS.A)
Current Dividend Yield: 5.50%
The Netherlands

9.EcoPetrol SA(EC)
Current Dividend Yield: 5.50%
Colombia

U.S. companies currently paying 5% or more in dividends are:

Bristol Myers Squibb Co.(BMY), Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY), Altria Group, Inc. (MO), AT&T Inc. (T), The Southern Company (SO) and Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ).

The World’s Top 100 Mining Stocks

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Some of the world’s top mining company stocks such as Vale(VALE), BHP Billiton(BBL, BHP), etc. have handsomely rewarded long-term investors. After falling heavily in 2008, mining stocks rallied hard last year. For example, BHP Billiton’s London stock price more than doubled last year. Lesser known companies like Teck have seen their share price increase by more than 1,500% in past 12 months.

The Top 100 Mining Stocks of the World are listed below.The tickers are listed if they are traded in the US organized exchanges.

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Source: ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY, Top 100 Mining Companies: What a difference a year makes  by Barry Sergeant, Mineweb

The top three global mining companies by market caps are BHP Billiton with around US$209B,Vale with US$166B and Rio Tinto at US$136B.US mining giant Alcoa(AA) now ranks at number 26 with market cap of just $17B.

NMDC, Hindustan Zinc, Sterlite, Sesa Goa, National Aluminium, Neyveli Lignite are some of the largest mining companies in India. Chinese miners listed here include Guizhou Panjiang, Shenhua, Qinghai, Zhongjin Gold and Yanzhou Coal.

Related:

The World’s Top Diamond-Producing Countries

The List of Diamond Mining Stocks by Country

Top 15 Global Bank Stocks Ranked by Price-to-Book Value

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Emerging market banks occupy the top positions in a ranking of the world’s most valuable financial institutions based on their stock price to book values as of Dec 31,2009 according to a recent article in The Financial Times.

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top-Banks-2010

Chinese banks took the first four spots easily beating western banks which were highly valued back in 2000.

From the article:

“China Merchants Bank, China Citic, ICBC and China Construction Bank lead the table, followed by Itaú Unibanco of Brazil, all with a price-to-book multiple of more than three.

Over the past six years, the average price-to-book value of the biggest 50 banks has halved from two to one.

This means that investors believe the average bank is worth no more than the value of its balance sheet. Most western banks are trading at well below their book value.

But investors are attaching a growing premium to emerging markets banks, led by China Merchants, the most highly rated of the biggest 50 banks by market capitalisation, on a multiple of 4.3, according to Bloomberg data.

At the start of the last decade, the US dominated the rankings. The top five were Bank of New York Mellon , Lloyds of the UK, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.

Only last year US Bancorp topped the table and Wells Fargo was in the top 10. ”

Canadian banks Bank of Novo Scotia (BNS) and Royal Bank of Canada(RY) have climbed in this price-to-book ranking. Australian bank Commonwealth Bank of Australia(OTC: CMWAY) is ranked number eight in this list. Similar to Chinese banks, Brazilian banks Banco Do Brasil(OTC: BDORY), Itau Unibanco(ITUB) and Banco Bradesco(BBD) also rebounded sharply after the credit crisis since their exposure to sub-prime loans were negligible.