Yield, Value, Safety With Utilities - Redux

Just about one year ago I presented the first article of what was to become my "Yield, Value, Safety" series, focusing on utilities meeting the requirements implied in the series title. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, I believe it would be useful to review the same stocks once again, to see how my picks and pans worked out, and more importantly, to see how my approach could be improved going forward. A link to the original article is provided here. To summarize, I reviewed 36 utilities in total, limiting the field to U.S. utilities organized as C-corporations. My first-level eliminator was to dismiss stocks yielding less than 4.25%. That eliminated 16 firms. My next-level eliminator was to dismiss firms with a payout ratio exceeding 80%, which dropped 7 more. I also eliminated any firms that had not increased the dividend in the past five years, or worse, had... Read more