Introduction and Thesis
I like regulated utilities. They have guaranteed rates of return and generally captive markets leading to long-term earnings per share growth. In turn, this leads to long-term dividend growth. In this article I discuss NorthWestern Corporation (NWE), one of my favorite utilities. The company is not well-followed, but it should be. NorthWestern’s trailing 10-year return exceeds that of the utility sector. In addition, the yield is over 3.7% as of this writing and the company is a Dividend Contender. Granted, there are utilities with higher dividend yields and growth prospects.