Power Up Your Portfolio with Electric Utility Stocks

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Traditionally electric utility stocks have offered stable growth and high dividend yields. Though they are boring to own they are usually preferred by income seeking investors such as retirees and others. Electric utilities are highly regulated in many states in the U.S. Despite the tough regulatory conditions electric companies are a monopoly in the areas they operate and are granted rate increases by regulators on a regular basis helping them generate higher profits.

Power company stocks that are traded on the NYSE are shown below:

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This week FirstEnergy announced to buy competitor Allegheny Energy for in $4.7B stock paying a 32% premium based on Wednesday’s closing price.The combined company would have six million customers in the seven states of Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Total annual revenues of the merged company is projected to be $16B.More consolidation may happen in the industry as companies try to maximize efficiency and gab market share. FPL Group, Inc.(FPL) is a high quality dividend stock that has performed consistently over many year. The current yield is 4.15%. Among the ADRs,  CPFL Energia (CPL) of Brazil pays a 6.36% dividend.

The Best and Worst Foreign Bank Stocks YTD

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The five best performing foreign bank ADRs Year-To-Date (YTD) as of February 11th are:

1. Banco of Chile(BCH)
YTD Change: 11.93%

2. Mizuho Financial (MFG)
YTD Change: 8.99%

3. Royal Bank of Scotland(RBS)
YTD Change: 8.20%

4. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (MTU)
YTD Change: 3.66%

5. Corpbanca (BCA)
YTD Change: 0.59%

The five worst performing foreign bank ADRs Year-To-Date (YTD) as of February 11th are:

1. Banco Macro (BMA)
YTD Change: -14.42%

2. UBS (UBS)
YTD Change: -17.86%

3. Banco Santander S.A (STD)
YTD Change: -18.25%

4. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA)
YTD Change: -23.61%

5. National Bank of Greece (NBG)
YTD Change: -23.80%

Banco of Chile(BCH) is the best performer with a return of about 12%. National Bank of Greece (NBG) is the worst performing foreign bank ADR with a loss of about 24%. This is not surprising since Greece is suffering from its huge debt and investors are betting against Greek equities. Today EU leaders announced that they would help Greece but have not mentioned any specific aid package. The big fat Greek debt saga may continue for a while and accordingly Greek equities would remain highly volatile. Spain is one of the high deficit countries in Europe together with Portugal, Ireland and Greece (“PIGS”). Hence Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria(BBVA) and Banco Santander (STD) of Spain are also down significantly so far this year.

Review: Brazil’s Bovespa Index

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The Brazilian equity and futures exchange in Sao Paulo is the 4th largest in the Americas and 13th largest in the world based on market capitalization. The main index of the Brazilian stock market is the Bovespa index.

From Wikipedia:

“The Bovespa Index (Portuguese: Índice Bovespa) is an index of about 50 stocks that are traded on the São Paulo Stock, Mercantile & Futures Exchange (Bovespa: BOlsa de Valores do Estado de São PAulo).

The index is composed by a theoretical portfolio with the stocks that accounted for 80% of the volume traded in the last 12 months and that were traded at least on 80% of the trading days. It’s revised quarterly, in order to keep its representativeness of the volume traded and in average the components of Ibovespa represent 70% of the all the stock value traded.”

The components of the Bovespa index are listed here. About half of the index components traded in the U.S. markets as ADRs in the organized exchanges except Banco Do Brasil. These components are listed below together with their current dividend yields:

1.AmBev (ABV)
Current Dividend Yield: 1.18%

2.Banco do Brasil(OTC: BDORY)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

3.Banco Bradesco(BBD)
Current Dividend Yield: 2.15%

4.Brasil Telecom (BTM)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

5.Braskem (BAK)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

6.BRF Brasil Foods (BRFS)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

7. Cemig (CIG)
Current Dividend Yield: 2.45%

8.Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (SID)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

9.CPFL Energia (CPL)
Current Dividend Yield: 6.82%

10.Embraer (ERJ)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

11.Fibria Cellulose (FBR)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

12.Gafisa (GFA)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

13.Gerdau (GGB)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

14.Gol Transportes Aereos (GOL)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

15.Itau Unibanco(ITUB)
Current Dividend Yield: 0.44%

16. Net (NETC)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

17. Petrobras(PBR)
Current Dividend Yield: 0.99%

18.TAM Airlines (TAM)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

19.Ultrapar (UGP)
Current Dividend Yield: 2.16%

20. TIM Participaoes (TSU)
Current Dividend Yield: 2.18%

21. Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (VALE)
Current Dividend Yield: 1.90%

22. Vivo (VIV)
Current Dividend Yield: N/A

47 High-Yield Picks With Yields More Than 10%

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I ran the stock screener for high dividend/yield stocks, trusts and funds with yields greater than 10% and trading in the New York Stock Exchange. This resulted in the following list. Investors looking for high yields can use this list as a starting point for further research.

Stocks and Funds Yielding > 10%:

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Magyar Telekom Plc. of Hungary(MTA) and Telecom Corp of New Zealand(NZTCY) offer excellent dividends. Iowa Telecommunications Services (IWA) offers telecom services to customers in rural Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri.

BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust (BPT) is a oil royalty trust operated by BP Alaska in the North Slope oil fields of Alaska. ING International High Dividend Equity Income Fund(IID) is closed-end fund which invests mainly in foreign stocks and derivatives linked to stocks.