I continued the theme with Serious Money: Home Depot & Lowes belong on your watchlist, which was very timely given that they both reported earnings earlier this week. On the syndicated radio broadcast of Marketplace, I spoke about the limited competition they faced as we pulled out of a recession. They also support the do-it-yourselfer, until that time comes.

Today, I am expanding into a third area of focus by bringing attention to Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) and the Southern Company (NYSE: SO). Both companies are out of favor right now and have not participated in the recent rally. They both pay a substantial dividend yield, trading near their 52-week lows.

There is so much discussion about alternative energy, electric cars, and other devices requiring power that I think electric utilities will be the center of attention for quite some time to come. Even though they are both near their lows, over the course of the last year, they have lost far less value than the overall market. The high yields provide some income to seniors who have been hurt by falling interest rates.

Dividend Yield: Duke Energy: 6.82%, Southern Co. 6.22% -- advantage DUK.

Price-to-earnings: Duke Energy: 14.86, Southern Co. 16.44 -- advantage DUK.

Price-to-sales: Duke Energy: 1.44, Southern Co. 1.67 -- advantage DUK.

Price-to-book: Duke Energy: 0.87, Southern Co. 1.81 -- advantage DUK.

Price-to-cashflow: Duke Energy: 5.19, Southern Co. 6.14 -- advantage DUK.

Return on Invested Capital: Duke Energy: 5.36, Southern 7.23 -- advantage SO.

These metrics clearly point to Duke as the superior buy at this time. Duke also does not have as much debt as Southern. I have been following both stocks for years and think that they are good for those who still favor a 'buy and hold' strategy. They also round out the previous stocks in this series and will add stability to any portfolio.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of SO, have bought more recently and have open options.