Overweight in Utilities & InfrastructureI like investing in utilities. More importantly I like investing in utilities with the type of infrastructure I consider to be a staple of domestic life. What do I mean?
Water Utilities ( CWT @ 1.61% Yield)
Waste Utilities ( WM @ 1.92% Yield)
Recycling Utilities ( RSG @ 2.02% Yield)
Power ( NRG @ 0.44%)
Why?
It certainly does make me feel good. Its easy to hold on to long term investments when you're rather certain you're doing the right thing (NRG is heavy renewables). We know pretty quickly that the suburban life of city dwellers is greatly dependent on the services which these types of companies provide. Anyone more familiar with these types of companies know that their services are typically maintained and required by small and large business alike, with residential subscriptions being the smaller portion. Cities, Housing developments, Contractors, Builders, Military, and Retail stores all utilize these services. Others do as well, but an exhaustive list would certainly take too long.
Why is the future brighter than the past?
The U.S. is amidst a budget constraint, and is fighting for every penny in order to stay open. Amongst the items up for discussion are Immigration, Border Protection, National Security, and certainly others are sneaking in as well. One item which has been on the docket for a long time and has met little debate.
Infrastructure Spending.
This is the item investors should be paying attention to. This market is pricing in more and more premium on Technology returns. Biomed's continue to be strong, and energy has been untrustworthy up to this point. The one area that continues to pump aggressive dividends, and is growing at an astounding rate, is municipal use utilities. Today we take a look at the chart of Waste Management (A waste water, trash collection, and recycling company) compared with FIW an ETF made up of Water Utilities, and measure their performance vs. the S&P 500. The results certainly warrant a look at the "boring" "safe" "low return" investment in these sectors.
Longs must maintain Discipline.
While I am bullish on this industry, and I do believe these sectors offer great protection from corrections in the current market - I also must exercise caution. A pullback makes complete sense. From a technical standpoint we can see the WM and FIW cycle has pullbacks that retrace to the previous fractal, before extending to touch. I doubt that pattern will break here. We also see that we are moving towards a fibonacci resistance arc. It's only a matter of time before WM (and FIW for that matter) touch resistance. Why is this important? This is important because we must maintain our discipline. We must remember to rebalance our portfolio. We should be slowly selling off and taking gains, and if you're like me - waiting for the pullback. I typically like to do so after getting dividends (these stocks are great dividend payers) and so you will need to do some fundamental analysis on your portfolio's balance in that regard.
Recommendation: Set a series of trailing stops. One for 10%, another for 40% and finally 50% of your position. The idea being to exit in waves in case of corrections of varying scales. Perhaps 10% on a 5% retrace. 40% on a 20% retrace. 50% on a 35% retrace. This can protect your investment, and help you slowly exit from a product. It keeps you nimble, and can help re-balance your portfolio.
HOMEWORK IDEA:
When rebalancing take a look at reinvesting a portion into the same sector albeit, in another market.
Research VEOEY, a European company which ALSO participates in the US Domestic market, and meets many of the criteria of these other securities. By doing this, you will slowly diversify your portfolio into more markets as you continue to build a robust investment in a sector.
Thanks for reading!
