3 Dividend King Utilities. Increasing the dividend for at least 50 consecutive years is the only requirement to become a Dividend King. 

It seems simple, but it is challenging to achieve. A company must have a product or service always in demand, especially during a recession, and cannot be easily duplicated by a competitor. 

Five decades of dividend growth is such a rare feat that there are just 35 Dividend King companies. 

We find this exclusive group an attractive place to find companies with significant competitive advantages and solid prospects for growth. 

Diving deeper into the Dividend Kings, we like the utility sector for safe and reliable income. These names provide water and electricity needed even in an economic downturn. 

Investors often favor utility stocks for the predictability of their business, recession-resistant business models, and steady, growing dividends over time. While these characteristics are essential under any market conditions, they become highly sought after when massive selloffs occur. 

This article will highlight three of our favorite utility stocks and Dividend Kings, including:

• American States Water Company (AWR)
• Northwest Natural Holding Company (NWN)
• SJW Group (SJW)

If you are interested in investing in stocks that pay dividends I recommend signing up for the Sure Dividend Newsletter*. It is a good value and one of the best dividend newsletters available. There is a 7-day free trial and grace period so it is risk free. The service provides top 10 stock picks with discussion of advantages, valuation, and risks. I highly recommend them and use their insights for my own stock research. If you want to educate yourself more about dividend investing, then I suggest taking a course. The Simply Investing Course* is a good value and fairly comprehensive.

3 Dividend Kings Utilities

 American States Water

First up is American States Water, a water utility company and Dividend King that operates in several U.S. states, including California. The company generated revenue of $488 million in 2020 and has a market capitalization of $3.7 billion.

American States Water is composed of two businesses. The Utility business primarily focuses on the regulated water service to customers in California. The company has nearly 262,000 water customers across ten counties in the state, including the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles. This segment also has a small electric utility business with almost 25,000 customers.

The screenshot below is from Stock Rover*.

The Services segment is a non-regulated water and wastewater service business that has contracts with 11 U.S. military bases. 

The regulated water business is the largest contributor to American States Water, generating around two-thirds of total revenue. 

Like most utility companies, American States Water has limited competition in the region that it operates. While this is a plus from a competition perspective, the company is heavily reliant on seeking rate hikes from regulators to grow the business. 

Unlike many utility companies, American States Water has a solid track record of seeing rate hikes as it spends an enormous amount of capital to maintain and upgrade its systems. As a result, the company has seen its average water rate base grow with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 9% over the last few years. This growth was the driving force behind American States Water’s earnings-per-share growth by 8.5% annually over the last decade. 

American States Water’s non-regulated water business is also essential. The company signs extremely long-dated contracts of 50 years with military bases to provide water and wastewater services. This point gives American States Water predictable results for a third of its business on a very long-time horizon. 

The strength of this business model has enabled American States Water to grow its dividend for 66 consecutive years. Shares yield just 1.5% today, which is barely above the average yield of 1.3% for the S&P 500 Index, but the company has raised its dividend with a CAGR of about 10% since 2011, as seen in the chart from Portfolio Insight*, a very high growth rate for a utility company. The company also has a reasonable expected payout ratio of just 60% for 2021.

NW Natural

Next is NW Natural, a company founded in the 1850s but today provides natural gas service in the Pacific Northwest to millions of people. The $1.5 billion company has annual sales of $774 million. 

NW Natural is a diversified utility company and a Dividend King. The company’s primary business is providing natural gas to Oregon and Southwest Washington customers. The company has 2.5 million customers, more than 780,000 connections, and 14,000 miles of pipeline. Additionally, NW Natural has close to 35 billion cubic feet of underground storage capacity.

The screenshot below is from Stock Rover*.

The company’s waste and wastewater business provides service to 67,000 people in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Texas in what happen to be some of the fastest-growing service areas in the country. 

NW Natural is also entering into the renewable energy space, though this process is in the early stages of development. The company plans to make investments in renewable fuel sources and decarbonize various sectors.   

NW Natural hasn’t been as successful with rate hikes as American States Water over the past decade, which, combined with a higher share count, is why the company’s earnings-per-share are down marginally over the last ten years. However, net profit does have a CAGR of 1.8% during this period. 

The company aims to reverse this trend of declining earnings as it expects to grow both its customer and rate bases over the next few years. NW Natural has had success increasing its customer base in the past and, in keeping with that, expects 1.4% growth going forward in this area. In addition, leadership has guided towards a 4% to 6% annual increase in rate bases through 2025, a strong reversal of prior trends. 

NW Natural’s natural gas business accounts for the vast majority of revenue and earnings, so gaining customers and rate base hikes would go a long way towards higher growth. Another factor working in NW Natural’s favor is that two-thirds of customers live in residential areas. As a result, most, if not all, of these customers would likely continue to pay their utility bills in the event of a recession. 

NW Natural’s dividend growth streak stands at 66 years. The dividend has barely moved since 2011, as it has a CAGR of less than 1%. However, the stock does yield 4.1% at the moment, three times the average yield of the market index. NW Natural has an expected payout ratio of 76% for 2021, lower than nearly any other year since 2011. 

SJW Group 

Finally, we have SJW Group, another water utility company and Dividend King that produces and distributes water to customers in four states. The company has a market capitalization of $2.1 billion and makes $565 million of annual revenues. 

SJW Group has 1.5 million customers, 390,000 service connections, and more than 300 water storage facilities across its service territories. So by region, there might not be a more diversified water utility company.

The screenshot below is from Stock Rover*.

SJW Group’s primary business used to be located in just the Silicon Valley area of California and the area north of San Antonio, Texas. These regions were amongst the fastest growing in the country. SJW Group has seen solid growth in rate bases in its most important area of California, where increases were 9.8%, 3.7%, and 5.2%, respectively. 

In an effort to diversify and expand its business, SJW Group purchased Connecticut Water in late 2019, a former Dividend King.

This acquisition extended the SJW Group service area to Maine and Connecticut. In addition, this acquisition added 450,000 customers and 138,000 connections to the company. The purchase also dropped the reliance on California for revenues, as the contribution from this region declined from ~90% of the total to 54% as of the most recent quarter. 

Lastly, SJW Group has a small real estate business where it develops properties for residential and warehouse customers in California and Tennessee. The income generated from this business goes to paying for water-related upgrades elsewhere.

The addition of Connecticut Water has already been a tailwind to results as revenue grew more than 34% in 2020 from 2019. In addition, the strength of the company’s business has enabled earnings-per-share to compound at a rate of 7.6% annually over the last decade. 

SJW Group’s dividend has compounded at a rate of around 7% per year since 2011, as seen in the chart from Portfolio Insight*, and the company has a dividend growth streak of 55 years. The stock yields 1.9% today, and the projected payout ratio of 59% is nearly in-line with the 10-year average.

Final Thoughts on 3 Dividend King Utilities

We feel confident in ranking the Dividend Kings amongst the best of the best for growing dividends. The less than 40 companies that constitute this group have raised dividends far longer than the vast majority of other companies in the market. 

Among the different sectors of the economy, the utility sector is one of our favorites as it can provide dependable, steady dividends during all phases of the economic cycle. 

American Water States, NW Natural, and SJW Group are three of our favorite Dividend King utility stocks. Each name has at least 55 years of dividend growth, and all provide market-beating income with very reasonable payout ratios. Investors looking for safe and secured income should consider adding these three stocks to their portfolios. 

Thanks for reading 3 Dividend King Utilities!

Disclosure: Members of the Sure Dividend team are long AWR, NWN, and SJW.

Author Bio: This article was written by Nate Parsh of the Sure Dividend team.

You can also read AT&T vs Verizon Stock: Telecom Stock Matchup.

Here are my recommendations:

If you are unsure on how to invest in dividend stocks or are just getting started with dividend investing. Take a look at my Review of the Simply Investing Report. I also provide a Review of the Simply Investing Course. Note that I am an affiliate of Simply Investing.

If you are interested in an excellent resource for DIY dividend growth investors. I suggest reading my Review of The Sure Dividend Newsletter. Note that I am an affiliate of Sure Dividend.

If you want to simplify your portfolio management and stop using spreadsheets take a look at my article on Passiv – A Modern Portfolio Management Website Review. Note that I an affiliate of Passiv.

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