Electric Avenue Do utility funds turn you off? This one could brighten up your portfolio.
By Dian Vujovich •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
It wasn't so long ago that investing in a utility stock wasthought to be somewhat ho-hum--reliable, but not at all sexy.Today, a lot has changed. Utility stocks--and the funds that investin them--now give off quite a spark.
Consult any broker over the age of 50, and he or she will recalla time when utility stocks were considered income-producinginvestments for ultraconservative folks, such as orphans and widowswho couldn't afford to lose any of the dividend income thesestocks provided.
But the utility stocks of the 1990s are another animal, as arethe funds that carry their name. Thanks to such factors as utilityindustry deregulation, the burgeoning of telecommunications stocksand a global market, today's utility funds are anything butstaid. Instead of the stocks of local power companies, the stocksnow found in a utility fund's portfolio may include everythingfrom national to foreign interests.
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