A stock I’m looking at currently is called Southern Company, or SO.
SO is a utilities company, and my standards it’s a “boring” company, which means that it doesn’t have big gain potential.
Positives
That being said, it does have a few things going for it:
- It pays a 4.80% yield.
- The stock price has been around the $45 mark for the past four years, with a 52-week high of $52.79.
- They are in the process of buying another energy company named AGL Resources. This will make them the second-largest U.S. utility company.
- I like that they are aggressively digging into solar energy. (They aren’t just burying their heads in the sand.)
- As a dividend stock, they have raised their dividend for 15 consecutive years.
November 25, 2015
Southern Company news (November, 2015)
Here are some current stories about SO:
- SO posts mixed results, looks to future
- SO adapting to new realities in energy
- How utilities are profiting from solar energy
- SO sales fall, earnings grow
- SO: Invest while the yield is still high
Discussion
I don’t have too much to say about this stock yet, I’m still researching it. But as I was looking for ways to diversify my “dividends” portfolio a little bit, I ran across this stock.
The worst thing I’ve found out about it yet has nothing to do with the stock, but with the utilities industry in general. More and more people are trying things like solar power, and they’re also trying to use “smart” thermostats and other approaches to reduce energy consumption. So while energy consumption may continue growing, it won’t be a growth industry like I imagine it was in the 80s and 90s when everyone began using PCs and other electronic devices.
books by alvin
 |
 |
 |
 |