Screen the sector priced for its dividend, not its growth.
Utilities cover regulated electric, gas and water providers whose returns are set largely by regulators rather than the open market. Growth is deliberately modest and the appeal is the dividend, so screening here is about the durability of the payout — regulated rate-base growth and a manageable debt load — rather than chasing earnings surprises.
Illustrative — not investment advice.
| Ticker | Company | Sub-industry | Quality Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| NEE | NextEra Energy | Regulated electric utility & renewables | 4.8/10 |
| SO | Southern Company | Regulated electric & gas utility | 4.0/10 |
| DUK | Duke Energy | Regulated electric & gas utility | 4.0/10 |
| AEP | American Electric Power | Regulated electric utility | 5.6/10 |
| D | Dominion Energy | Regulated electric & gas utility | 3.4/10 |
| EXC | Exelon | Regulated electric utility | 3.2/10 |
| SRE | Sempra | Regulated electric & gas utility, LNG | 3.6/10 |
| PEG | Public Service Enterprise Group | Regulated electric & gas utility | 3.6/10 |
| ED | Consolidated Edison | Regulated electric & gas utility | 4.4/10 |
| XEL | Xcel Energy | Regulated electric & gas utility | 3.8/10 |
| WEC | WEC Energy Group | Regulated electric & gas utility | 4.3/10 |
| AWK | American Water Works | Regulated water utility | 3.9/10 |
A dependable, above-market dividend is the entire investment case for most utilities; yield is the first thing to screen for and the first thing to protect.
Utility earnings grow largely by expanding the infrastructure regulators allow them to earn a return on; rate-base growth is the closest thing the sector has to an earnings-growth metric.
A payout ratio too close to 100% of earnings leaves no cushion for a rate-case setback or unplanned capex, raising the risk of a future dividend cut.
Utilities carry structurally high debt to fund infrastructure, but a leverage ceiling still separates conservatively financed utilities from those one downgrade away from a costlier refinancing.
Rising electricity demand from data centres and vehicle electrification is expanding the rate base utilities can invest in, a rare growth tailwind for an otherwise slow-growing sector.
Utilities are shifting generation toward wind, solar and storage, often earning a regulated return on that capital just as they would on a traditional power plant.
As utilities ask regulators to approve larger capital budgets, rate cases are drawing more political attention, adding uncertainty to the pace of allowed rate-base growth.
Each one opens the screener with these filters already on the bar — change any of them, or save the screen under your own name.
Income first — a dividend-yield floor, with valuation and free-cash-flow filters to screen out yield traps.
Durable, capital-efficient businesses: high returns on capital and fat margins, still growing.
Smaller companies compounding revenue faster than the market has noticed, and paying for themselves in cash.
Every card above opens the screener with the sector filter and its own bounds already on the bar. Change any of them — nothing here is fixed.
Stack valuation, profitability, growth, dividend and financial-health filters. Each one is a range with presets, the table answers as you move a bound, and every filter says how many companies it excluded for want of a value.
Open any survivor for the four intrinsic-value models, then save it to a watchlist with a margin-of-safety target so each name carries an undervalued / fair / rich signal.
Screen for a sustainable dividend yield, steady regulated rate-base growth, a payout ratio with room to spare and manageable leverage. That favours utilities protecting their dividend over those stretching to fund growth.
Open the company’s Intrinsic Value tab: Lemma Analysis prices it four ways at once — Advanced DCF, Ben Graham, Simple DCF and the Dividend Discount Model — and draws all four on one axis against today’s price, with every assumption editable and a bear/base/bull case behind each one. There is deliberately no blended figure; which methods fit the company is stated instead, with the reason beside any that does not. A regulated utility is a bond-like payout with a growth rate set by the rate case, so the dividend model usually reads truest — and the discount rate you choose moves the answer more than anything else on the page. Intrinsic Value is free for 3 companies a day with no account needed, and unlimited on Ultimate, which every new account gets for seven days without a card.
There is no one answer for a sector, and a page that gave you one would be stating a figure it cannot keep true. What the Fair Value tab does instead is ask it per company: seven multiples — P/E, Yield, P/FCF, P/OCF, P/S, EV/EBITDA and P/B — each measured against that company’s own history, so today’s reading is a percentile of what the market has actually paid for it rather than a comparison with a sector average. A regulated utility carries heavy debt against a rate base sitting on its own balance sheet, so the EBITDA and book-value lenses say more here than almost anywhere else — and the dividend lens is the one an income buyer reads first. Fair Value is free for 3 companies a day with no account needed, and unlimited on Ultimate, which every new account gets for seven days without a card.
Yes — the screener is part of Ultimate. Every new account gets Ultimate for seven days with no credit card, which is enough to build a utilities screen, sort it and keep it; a screen you save stays on your account.
Building and maintaining power plants, grids and pipelines requires enormous upfront capital, and regulators typically allow utilities to earn a return on that invested capital — so debt-funded infrastructure investment is a normal, expected part of the business model, not a red flag by itself.
The screener is part of Ultimate, and every new account gets it for seven days: create an account, confirm your email, and the trial starts without a card. What you have built stays yours either way — a screen is an address, so the link you saved keeps working the day you subscribe.