DUK - 3 Magnificent Stocks to Buy That Are Near 52-Week Lows
2023-12-01 08:04:00 ET
With interest rates on the rise, investors have been shifting away from income stocks and toward safer alternatives like CDs. That's opening up an opportunity for investors in the utility sector, which has been down and out of late. Near 52-week lows, Black Hills Corporation (NYSE: BKH) , NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE) , and Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) are three dividend stocks worth close looks today.
Although Black Hills' stock is down 30% over the past year, that may be opening up an opportunity to buy a Dividend King utility on the relative cheap. Indeed, the 4.8% dividend yield here is near its highest levels over the past decade. To be fair, the company has pulled back on capital spending this year so it can focus on reducing leverage. That's a decision at least partly tied to rising rates, and it might lead to a brief slowdown in growth.
That said, there are a lot of things like about Black Hills. For starters, while small by utility standards (with a roughly $3.5 billion market cap), it operates in growing regions. To put a number on that, the utility estimates that its customer growth has been increasing nearly three times as fast as the average population growth in the United States. And while there has been a near-term slowdown in capital spending, the long-term outlook remains strong as the company continues to shift away from dirtier fuels (like coal) and more toward renewable power. All in all, Black Hills believes it can continue to grow earnings by 4% to 6% a year for the foreseeable future. That's not bad when you add in the historically high yield.
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3 Magnificent Stocks to Buy That Are Near 52-Week Lows