I added Southern Company (NYSE: SO) and Dominion Energy (NYSE: D) to my portfolio a few years ago. Both are large utilities and, at the time I bought them, each had a historically high yield. I'm pleased with Southern, but Dominion Energy made big changes that I'm worried about. So I've been looking for a replacement, which I finally found in Black Hills (NYSE: BKH).

Here's why I pulled the trigger on the dividend-producing utility stock.

One reason I chose Southern was its long history of dividend increases, now up to more than two decades. Dominion's history wasn't as strong, but it had a higher dividend growth rate, and management was projecting dividend growth would remain high. Then Dominion changed gears and dividend growth slowed to a crawl. And then it sold its pipeline business and cut the dividend.

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Source Fool.com