Dividend.com re-added a regional utility to the Best Dividend Stocks list and removed an industrial supply firm from the list.
Since achieving a DARS score of 3.9, our chosen utility managed to return more than 12%. The stock was only removed due to a market-cap tiebreaker – and thanks to the rules, it’s now back on the list.
And it’s easy to see why.
Our pick has a virtual monopoly on its operating region, which has seen strong economic and population growth over the last few decades. This steadily rising demand for power has helped to power (no pun intended) dividends for our utility’s common stock every quarter since 1943.
But it’s not just rising economic conditions that have helped our utility. The combination of a friendly regulatory environment and the unique nature of its generation assets has continued to make a strong impression on investors and generate significant free cash flows and profits. For this reason, we have once again been able to make the stock a candidate for our Best Dividend Stocks list.
To summarize, here are five reasons why you should own this stock:
- Operating monopoly in one of the fastest-growing states in the mid-west.
- Has paid a dividend every quarter since 1943 and has grown that payout 83% over the last decade.
- Mega-winner from the shift to renewable energy generation.
- Has plenty of non-regulated, on-utility businesses to add extra profit boosts.
- Healthy payout ratio of 54% and a growing yield of 2.60%.
Soft Removal of an Industrial Supply Firm From the Best Dividend Stocks List
We added this industrial supplier to the Best Dividend Stocks list at the beginning of 2017. However, the firm has not lived up to our DARS model’s standards when it comes to price. As the so-called Trump Bump waned, the stock has suffered. Add in a few revenue misses and the supplier is down nearly 26% from its 52-week high. Given our rules-based system, this has cut the firm’s relative strength score and its overall DARS score to just 3.8. However, the stock still features high on metrics across the remaining DARS criteria and we remain very bullish on the name.
