Eye on Artesian Resources Corp.

Yesterday I came across an interesting article about the global water industry by John Dickerson. After reading it, I am thinking of adding Artesian Resources (ARTNA) to the watchlist.

There is a table in the article which shows that U.S. water utilities had a surprisingly good investment record from 1995 to 2005 compared to the S&P 500. I was gratified to see that all of the best-performing water utilities mentioned in the article are components of PowerShares Water Resources (PHO), which I own. However, the list also contains several smaller and lesser known water companies. I did a little checking and I think ARTNA is perhaps the best of these.

ARTNA produces and sells water and offers wastewater treatment services in the state of Delaware. This small company has dramatically outperformed the S&P over the last ten years, but with much less volatility and a higher dividend yield. The shares have a beta of .26 and a current yield of 3.32%.

Recent price performance has not been impressive, though. The shares made an all-time high of 21.80 last April and since then they have been backing and filling with an ominous looking volume pattern. This is a stock that looks like it could head south with vigor when a market correction occurs. And if that does happen, it might be a good time to pick up a few shares of ARTNA.

ARTNA 1-yr. chart

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