The portfolio of stocks I started building on September 8, at a one stock per week pace for the next year, is named Vista.  I will select its ninth stock this coming weekend. Vista is the sixth portfolio I've built (at a one dividend dog per-week pace) since 2014. Six portfolios = VI for Vista!

Vista is planned to Look Ahead for Outstanding, Proven, Dividend Winners. (Like Aristocrats)

Today we'll review the fourth of five utilities sector stock candidates vying to be that tenth selection and only utility member of the Vista portfolio.

My subject today is a mid-cap natural resources company, named MDU Resources Group Inc. Its trading ticker symbol is MDU. This is my first report on MDU Resources Group Inc for any of my portfolios.

MDU Resources Group Inc is a construction and natural resources company operating in the United States.

Construction operations, which generate the majority of revenue, provides construction and maintenance services, specializing in electric and communication lines, gas pipelines, fire suppression systems, and external lighting and traffic signals. The majority of construction customers are in the utilities, manufacturing, and governmental industries. 

The firm also has electricity generation, transmission, and distribution operations as well as natural gas pipeline, midstream, and distribution operations in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington.

The company was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota.

I use three key data points to gauge dividend equities or funds like MDU Resources Group Inc:

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Those three basic keys best tell whether a company has made, is making, and will make money. 

MDU Price

MDU's price per share closed at $24.98 yesterday. A year ago its price was $28.92. Price fell $3.94 or about 13.6% last year.

If MDU's stock trades in the range of $15 to $30 this next year, its recent $24.98 price might rise by $3.02 to reach $28.00 by November 12, 2021. 

MDU Dividends

MDU's most recently declared quarterly dividend was $0.2075 paid October 1st. Dividends are estimated to total $0.83 per share annually and yield 3.32% at yesterday's $24.98 closing price.

MDU Gains?

Adding the $0.83 annual anticipated dividend to my $3.02 optimistic estimate of MDU Resources Group Inc's price upside shows a $3.85 potential gross gain, per share, to be reduced by any costs to trade the shares.  

Put little under $1,000.00 today in MDU Resources Group Inc at $24.98 and we would buy 40 shares of MDU stock.

A $10 broker fee (if any) paid half at purchase and half at sale could cost us  $0.25 per share.

Subtract that $0.25 brokerage cost from my estimated $3.85 gross gain per share results in a net gain of $3.60 X 40 shares = $144.00 for a 14% net gain on a $999.20 investment.

So it goes that MDU Resources Group Inc shows a possible 14% net gain including a 3.32% dividend yield. It could be more, it could be less.      

All of the estimates above are speculation based on the past history of MDU Resources Group Inc. Only time and money invested in this stock will determine its worth.