Foreign Utilities Up Nicely from Lows

Foreign utility stocks have performed well off the lows seen in March this year, similar to the financial sector. While the financial sector gets most of the media attention due to the stress-tests in the US, as well as bailouts and other events, I wanted to find out how the foreign utility sector was performing since the March lows. The results of my research are displayed below in table form.

Performance of foreign utilities since March lows:

As shown in the listing above, many of the stocks are up in double digit percentages. Seven of the stocks have dividend yields of over 5% even after recent gains. It must be noted that though Brazilian utilities such as CPFL Energia S.A. (CPL) pay over 7% in dividends, they can be volatile and do not follow consistent payment patterns. However utilities in the developed world such as Veolia Environnement (VE) of France, TransAlta Corp. (TAC) of Canada, National Grid plc (NGG) etc. have relatively safer yields and have great business models.

Comments

[PastTense:]

Many people are predicting inflation because of the massive printing of money. (There is also peak oil, particularly relevent to energy utilities).

In a lot of places, utilities have problems in inflationary environments as governments are very slow in approving price increases.

May 10 12:17 PM

[Danny Furman:]

Good info, except on CPL, which is required to pay something like 40%+ of annual net income as dividends. SBS is less predictable...

May 11 12:35 AM

[djo:]

VE a utility?

Check your information!

VE profile:
"Veolia Environnement SA, together with its subsidiaries, provides environmental management services to public authorities, individuals, and industrial and commercial customers worldwide. The company operates in four segments: Water, Environmental Services, Energy Services, and Transportation."

May 11 09:10 AM

[Living4Divi...:]

Huaneng Power cut their dividend - the dividend you quoted is incorrect.

May 11 02:07 PM

[Living4Divi...:]

PS - ... thank you for the report - there are some good opportunities on the list.

May 11 02:21 PM

[connorport:]

They also own water and sewer utilities.


On May 11 09:10 AM djo wrote:

> VE a utility?
>
> Check your information!
>
> VE profile:
> "Veolia Environnement SA, together with its subsidiaries, provides
> environmental management services to public authorities, individuals,
> and industrial and commercial customers worldwide. The company operates
> in four segments: Water, Environmental Services, Energy Services,
> and Transportation."

May 11 04:45 PM