Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Utility Corp Stock Prices Up an Average 47% Since President Obama Took Office

From an extensive review of SEC filings, I found 63 US Utility Corps with externally audited under US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) After-tax Net Income or Net Loss from Continuing Operations of at least $100 mil in any of the most recent five fiscal years.

I've excluded the troubled Texas Utility threesome of Dynegy, Energy Future Holdings, and GenOn.  I also excluded Constellation Energy, which has been acquired by Exelon.

These 63 Largest Utility Corps generated Total Net Income of $35.3 bil in 2007.  Then when the financial meltdown hit in late 2008, these total earnings dropped by 7% to $32.7 bil in 2008, and then dropped by another 3% to $31.9 bil in 2009.  Since then, these total earnings have recovered to $35.3 bil in 2010 and a bit further to $35.8 in 2011.

As you can see, Utility Corp earnings are relatively stable.

But these earnings were negatively impacted by the 2008 financial meltdown, and then this negative impact on earnings was recouped after the Obama Administration and the Fed both did fine jobs fixing, to a large extent, the very troubled US financial system, which in late 2008 and early 2009 was headed for economic collapse.

Below here are the Audited After-tax Net Income of these 63 Largest Utility Corps for each of the most recent five years.




2011 2010 2009 2008 2007



Reported Reported Reported Reported Reported



Audited Audited Audited Audited Audited



After-Tax After-Tax After-Tax After-Tax After-Tax

City State Net Income Net Income Net Income Net Income Net Income

HQs HQs (Loss) (Loss) (Loss) (Loss) (Loss)


mil $s mil $s mil $s mil $s mil $s
Big Utility Corps

Exelon Chicago IL 2,495 2,563 2,707 2,717 2,726
Southern Co Atlanta GA 2,268 2,040 1,708 1,807 1,782
Nextera Energy Juno Beach FL 1,923 1,957 1,615 1,639 1,312
Duke Energy Charlotte NC 1,713 1,320 1,073 1,275 1,524
American Electric Power Columbus OH 1,576 1,218 1,370 1,376 1,153
AES Arlington VA 1,541 1,470 1,804 1,835 564
PPL Allentown PA 1,510 976 433 877 1,022
Dominion Resources Richmond VA 1,426 2,980 1,278 1,660 2,661
Sempra Energy San Diego CA 1,407 733 1,122 1,068 1,118
Public Service Enterprise Group Newark NJ 1,407 1,557 1,594 918 1,274
Entergy New Orleans LA 1,367 1,270 1,251 1,241 1,160
MidAmerican Energy Des Moines IA 1,352 1,310 1,188 1,871 1,219
Consolidated Edison New York NY 1,062 1,003 879 933 936
First Energy Akron OH 869 718 856 1,339 1,312
PG&E San Francisco CA 858 1,113 1,234 1,198 1,020
Xcel Energy Minneapolis MN 841 752 686 646 576
CenterPoint Energy Houston TX 770 442 372 446 395
DTE Energy Detroit MI 720 639 535 531 791
Progress Energy Raleigh NC 587 867 840 778 702
PacifiCorp Portland OR 555 566 550 465 445
Ameren St Louis MO 526 151 624 644 656
Wisconsin Energy Milwaukee WI 513 454 376 355 332
EQT Pittsburgh PA 480 228 157 256 257
CMS Energy Jackson MI 415 366 220 301 (120)
Northeast Utilities Springfield MA 401 394 336 266 251
SCANA Cayce SC 387 376 357 353 327
ONCOR Electric Delivery Dallas TX 367 352 320 (487) 327
OGE Energy Oklahoma City OK 364 300 261 237 245
Pinnacle West Capital Phoenix AZ 356 345 256 277 302
Alliant Energy Madison WI 321 308 129 298 444
UGE Corp King of Prussia PA 308 356 382 305 311
American Water Works Voorhees NJ 305 255 (220) (529) (323)
NiSource Merrillville IN 304 285 230 363 322
TECO Energy Tampa FL 273 240 214 162 317
PEPCO Holdings Washington DC 260 139 223 183 264
National Fuel Gas Williamsville NY 258 219 103 267 201
Nstar Electric Boston MA 252 249 241 224 217
Westar Energy Topeka KS 236 209 141 178 168
Integrys Energy Group Chicago IL 231 224 (70) 115 181
Questar Salt Lake City UT 208 192 181 172 146
NRG Energy Princeton NJ 197 476 941 1,053 556
CLECO Pineville LA 196 255 106 102 151
PNM Resources Albuquerque NM 191 (31) 66 (298) 60
AGL Resources Atlanta GA 186 250 249 237 241
Great Plains Energy Kansas City MO 174 212 152 120 121
ITC Holdings Novi MI 172 146 131 109 73
Idacorp Boise ID 167 142 124 98 82
NV Energy Las Vegas NV 163 227 183 209 197
Portland General Electric Portland OR 147 121 89 87 145
Aqua America Bryn Mawr PA 145 118 100 94 90
Vectren Evansville IN 142 134 133 129 143
Hawaiian Electric Industries Honolulu HI 140 115 85 92 85
Puget Energy Bellevue WA 123 30 187 155 185
WGL Holdings Washington DC 117 110 120 117 108
Piedmont Natural Gas Charlotte NC 114 142 123 110 104
Southwest Gas Las Vegas NV 112 103 87 61 83
UNS Energy Tucson AZ 110 113 106 17 61
Avista Spokane WA 104 95 89 75 39
El Paso Electric El Paso TX 104 90 67 78 75
New Jersey Resources Wall NJ 101 117 27 109 63
IPALCO Enterprises Indianapolis IN 61 80 74 75 125
Edison International Rosemead CA 24 1,303 952 1,348 1,307
Calpine Houston TX (190) (162) 114 (26) 2,666








Total all 63 Largest Utility Corps

35,812 35,322 31,861 32,711 35,277








Annual Percentage Change

1% 11% -3% -7%








Three Year (2008-2011) Earnings Increase Under Obama





…..Amount

3,101



…..Percentage

9%




Which takes us to Utility Corp stock prices since President Obama took office.

Of these 63 Utility Corps, 56 of them had their common stock trading on both January 16, 2009, which is the last day stocks traded before President Obama took office, and also yesterday, Tuesday, October 23, 2012.

I retrieved all of the below stock market closing price information from the excellent Big Charts.com website.

These 56 Largest Utility Corps had an average stock market price increase of an incredibly high 47% since President Obama took office on January 20, 2009.

And this amazing 47% average stock market price increase during the Obama Administration is significantly understated in real terms since it does not include the huge amount of cash dividends Utility Corp investors have received in the past 15 quarters of the Obama Administration.

Investors buy Utility Stocks mainly for the robust cash dividends they receive, not for longer-term stock price appreciation.  

And yeah, the Obama Administration did play a key role in this massive Utility Corp stock price increase.

Just like the common stock of all companies, Utility Stocks were hit hard by the 2008 financial meltdown, where panic was so widespread, and economic collapse anticipated by many.

With its wise actions to fix the broken US financial system, the Obama Administration substantially reduced the elevated risk which was in Utility Stocks after the 2008 financial collapse, thereby increasing their stock prices.

Further, with the Obama Administration working closely with the Fed, interest rates were substantially reduced, thereby significantly benefiting Utility Corps, which have a very heavy debt load due to their substantial investments in Property, Plant and Equipment.  Thus, Utility Corps are now able to borrow at much cheaper interest rates.

All Utility Corp executives, all of their employees, their Boards of Directors, and their stockholders have to all be very happy with the stock market performance of their many fine Utility companies during the Obama Administration.

And these same US citizens also must be very pleased with how the Obama Administration worked so hard and very effectively on so many fronts to fix the clearly broken US financial system and to also create a US economic environment that permitted companies to flat out flourish.  This highly successful effort created a robust US economic environment which was quite a change from what existed in the just horrible financial meltdown, near Depression year of 2008.

Below here are the common stock market closing prices of each of these 56 Largest US Utility Corps at both the most recent date, and also at the date just before President Obama took office, as well as the percentage stock market price changes for this period of time.




Market Market Percentage

City State Price Price Increase

HQs HQs 10-23-12 1-16-09 (Decrease)






Big Utility Corps



NiSource Merrillville IN $25.08 $10.71 134%
OGE Energy Oklahoma City OK $56.82 $24.57 131%
Calpine Houston TX $17.90 $7.83 129%
CMS Energy Jackson MI $23.97 $11.26 113%
PNM Resources Albuquerque NM $21.76 $10.67 104%
CLECO Pineville LA $42.29 $22.36 89%
Questar Salt Lake City UT $20.37 $10.88 87%
ITC Holdings Novi MI $77.43 $41.51 87%
El Paso Electric El Paso TX $33.74 $18.13 86%
National Fuel Gas Williamsville NY $52.85 $29.11 82%
NV Energy Las Vegas NV $18.56 $10.35 79%
American Water Works Voorhees NJ $36.50 $20.45 78%
Wisconsin Energy Milwaukee WI $37.87 $21.41 77%
EQT Pittsburgh PA $58.10 $33.00 76%
DTE Energy Detroit MI $60.74 $34.75 75%
Southwest Gas Las Vegas NV $43.53 $25.09 73%
CenterPoint Energy Houston TX $21.04 $12.74 65%
Northeast Utilities Springfield MA $39.05 $23.79 64%
Pinnacle West Capital Phoenix AZ $52.86 $32.65 62%
Alliant Energy Madison WI $44.65 $27.87 60%
Sempra Energy San Diego CA $67.76 $43.71 55%
Xcel Energy Minneapolis MN $27.89 $18.28 53%
Dominion Resources Richmond VA $52.69 $34.60 52%
Idacorp Boise ID $44.46 $29.51 51%
Consolidated Edison New York NY $59.70 $40.07 49%
Westar Energy Topeka KS $29.45 $20.02 47%
UNS Energy Tucson AZ $42.20 $28.84 46%
Portland General Electric Portland OR $27.44 $18.77 46%
TECO Energy Tampa FL $17.59 $12.09 45%
Duke Energy Charlotte NC $64.99 $45.06 44%
Nextera Energy Juno Beach FL $70.76 $49.83 42%
SCANA Cayce SC $48.39 $34.21 41%
Edison International Rosemead CA $46.80 $33.23 41%
American Electric Power Columbus OH $44.62 $32.50 37%
Southern Co Atlanta GA $46.20 $35.03 32%
UGI Corp King of Prussia PA $32.26 $24.75 30%
AGL Resources Atlanta GA $39.86 $31.32 27%
Avista Spokane WA $25.03 $19.82 26%
AES Arlington VA $10.73 $8.56 25%
Integrys Energy Group Chicago IL $53.80 $43.15 25%
Aqua America Bryn Mawr PA $24.87 $20.02 24%
WGL Holdings Washington DC $38.93 $32.41 20%
Hawaiian Electric Industries Honolulu HI $25.77 $21.80 18%
Great Plains Energy Kansas City MO $22.36 $19.12 17%
New Jersey Resources Wall NJ $44.68 $38.27 17%
Piedmont Natural Gas Charlotte NC $31.52 $27.26 16%
PEPCO Holdings Washington DC $19.81 $17.30 15%
PG&E San Francisco CA $42.18 $37.60 12%
Vectren Evansville IN $28.87 $25.88 12%
Public Service Enterprise Group Newark NJ $32.18 $30.97 4%
Ameren St Louis MO $32.48 $32.47 0%
NRG Energy Princeton NJ $22.40 $23.86 -6%
PPL Allentown PA $29.56 $32.12 -8%
Entergy New Orleans LA $70.31 $77.11 -9%
First Energy Akron OH $45.53 $50.03 -9%
Exelon Chicago IL $36.26 $54.80 -34%






Average Increase: All 56 Largest Utility Corps


47%

It should be pointed out that the above earlier period stock price of  Duke Energy has been adjusted to reflect the effect of a one-for-three reverse stock split.