Puget Sound Energy Distributes Rotten Egg Smell by Mail

Puget Sound Energy, which used to trade on the New York Stock Exchange, and is now privately held, distributes electricity to over a million customers and natural gas to over 700,000 customers. But this month, the company will be distributing something else, a scartch-and-sniff flyer that smells like rotten eggs. The company did this to let customers know what a gas leak aroma smells like.

Although you can't invest in this rotten eggs smell distributor, there are plenty of other natural gas utilities that are available for your portfolio, over 20 with yields above 3%. For example, Nicor Inc. (GAS), with the unforgettable stock ticker symbol, pays a dividend of 4.3% and sports a forward PE ration of 14.6. The company distributes natural gas to over 2 million customers in Illinois.

Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Inc. (PNY), a North Carolina nat gas distributor with almost a million customers, pays a 4.1% yield and trades at 16 times forward earnings. The company was upgrades by Robert W. Baird Company in July.

For a list of over 20 high yield natural gas and propane utilities, you should check out the list at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fourth Week of June 2010

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets. In flat or choppy markets, your have to be extremely careful.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable Excel list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. The list contains many dividend paying companies, all with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 3%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

Getty Realty Corp. (GTY) market cap: $577.3M ex div date: 6/22/2010 yield: 8.3%

H.J. Heinz Company (HNZ) market cap: $14.7B ex div date: 6/22/2010 yield: 3.9%

Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. (PNY) market cap: $1.9B ex div date: 6/22/2010 yield: 4.2%

Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL) market cap: $9.9B ex div date: 6/22/2010 yield: 4.8%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com

Natural Gas Stocks: Hot Air or Hot Air Rising?

Yes, we've had some bad weather in the East. But with the ending of Winter and the onslaught of Spring, natural gas futures fell to their lowest level in about four years. If you look at a chart of natural gas, you will notice that since July of 2008, gas has been in a constant downtrend. However, the natural gas stocks, utilities, and publicly traded limited partnerships have been bouncing all over the place during the last couple years.

Income investors like natural gas stocks for several reasons. First, they pay a decent dividend with over 15 paying more than 4%. Second, they provide diversification from electric utilities. The average price to earnings ratio for all these stocks is less than 15. And in terms of gas stocks, in addition to natural gas companies, investors can also choose propane distributors.

There are plenty of natural gas and propane gas utilities available to invest in. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has turned up about 25 gas utilities with yields ranging from 2% to above 8%, such as ONEOK Inc. (OKE) yielding 3.8%, Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Inc. (PNY) yielding 4.1%, and TransCanada Corp. (TRP) yielding 4.3%.

You might also consider investing in electric utilities, which also pay fairly high yields, many in excess of 5%.

To see a list of 25 gas utilities in the form of a free downloadable Excel database of natural gas and propane stocks, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fourth Week of March 2010

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets. In flat or choppy markets, your have to be extremely careful.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a free downloadable and sortable Excel list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. The list contains many dividend paying companies, all with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 3%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date and the yield.

Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. (PNY) ex div date: $2.0B market cap: 3/23/10 yield: 4.1%

Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL) ex div date: $9.6B market cap: 3/23/10 yield: 4.7%

Portland General Electric Company (POR) ex div date: $1.4B market cap: 3/23/10 yield: 5.3%

Philip Morris International Inc. (PM) ex div date: $94.3B market cap: 3/23/10 yield: 4.6%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Stockerblog.com