American Electric Power Company Inc (AEP-N)

Pays a 4.4% dividend and the CEO is doing a fine job.

One of the US's biggest electricity producers. Their commercial load growth is up 7.5% in the last quarter, the third straight that's above 7%. Will benefit from a resurgence in domestic manufacturing including a $20 billion Intel plant in Ohio where AEP is based. Pays a 4.5% yield. Trades at only 14x 2024 PE.

Faces stiff competition from bonds and high bond yields for its dividend to be attractive.

A utility that serves 5.6 million customers in 11 states. Has pulled back 5% so fat this year as Wall Street rotates out of this sector, but he expects this rotation will reverse soon. Yesterday they reported another strong quarter with top and bottom line beats in Q4, and will sell an unregulated renewable business.

He typically doesn’t own utilities because they tend to be dividend yield plays, not dividend growth. This is an excellent company serving about 5.5 million customers in 11 states. You get good consistent mid-single digit dividend growth and earnings growth. Half their power generation comes from coal, so they are going to have to spend money over the next 5-6 years to retrofit some of their plants. Dividend yield of 3.4%.