Volatile Utility Stocks That Have Been Moving Lately

NRG Energy (NRG) has risen 6.9% on a YTD (year-to-date) basis. It has the highest implied volatility of all the utility companies that make up the Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLU). In the past five days, NRG Energy has risen 1.0%.

Below are the YTD returns of the utility stocks we’ve identified as having high implied volatilities:

• AES (AES): 23.3%
• Exelon (EXC): 28.7%
• FirstEnergy (FE): -1.3%
• NiSource (NI): 12.8%

Now, let’s look at the five-day returns of these stocks:

• AES: -0.3%
• Exelon: 4.5%
• FirstEnergy: 2.6%
• NiSource: 1.4%

Southern Company (SO) has the lowest implied volatility of all the utility companies that are part of XLU. Below are the YTD returns of the utility stocks we’ve identified as having low implied volatilities:

• Southern Company: 3.6%
• Dominion Resources (D): 10.2%
• American Electric Power Company (AEP): 6.6%
• NextEra Energy (NEE): 12.6%
• Duke Energy (DUK): 6.5%

Here are the five-day returns of these stocks:

• Southern Company: 2.2%
• Dominion Resources: 1.5%
• American Electric Power Company: 3.2%
• NextEra Energy: 0.1%
• Duke Energy: 1.7%

In the next part of this series, we’ll look at the utility stocks with the highest short interest-to-equity float ratios.