The Utilities sector ranks ninth out of the ten sectors as detailed in my sector rankings for ETFs and mutual funds. It gets my Dangerous rating, which is based on aggregation of ratings of eight ETFs and 40 mutual funds in the Utilities sector as of October 11, 2012.
High dividend yields are NOT enough to warrant investing in the utilities sector.
Too many investors put their hard-earned money in utility stocks with the assumption that relatively high-yielding dividends from stable business make a good investment.
The real question that investors in any equity security must ask is: does my expected return from a stock justify the risk of investing in it?
We recommend investors avoid all utility sector ETFs. There are no ETFs in the utility sector with an attractive-or-better rating. None of the ETFs rank better than the S&P500.
Investors should sell the following dangerous-rated utility sector ETFs: