Southwest Gas Corp. (3.1%) (NYSE:SWX) (SWX – $65.85 – NYSE) is a natural gas distribution utility serving 1.9 million customers in geographically diverse portions of Arizona (~1.0 million, or 53%), Nevada (~700,000, or 37%), and California (~185,000, or 10%). From 2008 to 2010, customer growth slowed, due to the overall slowdown in the new housing market and the increase in idle/vacant homes resulting from foreclosures and challenging economic conditions. Over the past several years, customer growth has improved, and over the long term, we expect that the service area will return to higher growth rates as the favorable regional climate and lower housing prices attract customers to inhabit vacant homes. SWX also owns Centuri Construction Group, a full service underground piping contractor that provides trenching and installation, replacement, and maintenance services for energy distribution systems. The pipeline construction business is growing strongly, given the industry’s focus on safety related pipeline replacement programs and achieved the $1 billion revenue milestone. The 2014 acquisition of Link-Line Group’s pipeline construction business expanded the scope and scale of the business, allowing the potential for some type of financial engineering. We consider SWX to be a high quality gas utility with a focused, low risk strategy and solid earnings outlook, driven by recent and future rate increases, expanded infrastructure tracking mechanisms, customer growth, and cost controls.
From Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio)'s Gabelli Utilities Fund first quarter 2016 commentary.
