Income is a big part of investors' returns. Stocks, mutual funds and fixed income ideas in this column are featured because they are relatively solid in their ability to pay dividends or interest. We're giving income investors a resource to start their research for investments that give better yields with lower risk.

The weather has been extremely cold for weeks in the Northeast. That means higher revenues in the first quarter. Analysts think the first quarter will finish with $3.99 billion up 20% from the $3.33 billion in last year's first. For the full year, 5 analysts have a consensus estimate of $14.00 billion, then $14.53 billion next year.

Earnings should follow the same pattern, at least for the full year. Analysts see the first quarter down to 82 cents, below the 94 cents of last year's first. For the full year, however, they have an estimate of $3.60, above the $3.32 of 2009. In 2010, they see $4.07.

The company would like to buy Allegheny Energy with 113 million shares of stock (about $4.4 billion worth). But it needs the approval of both sets of shareholders and four state commissions including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland. Plus the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Both companies think the deal will close by mid-2011. The purchase will give First Energy additional generation power of 9700 megawatts, and Allegheny's coal plants are newer, more efficient and cleaner than FE's. Most of the areas served by Allegheny are close to FE's regions. Analysts think cost savings of $255 million will be achieved by the second year of the purchase and more after that. The acquisition should be accretive to earnings.

More numbers: Market cap is $12.18 billion. Trailing P/E is 12.15 while Forward P/E is 9.81. Price to sales ratio is .99. Price to Book is 1.42. Book value is $28.07. Operating margin for the last 12 months was 14.96% while Profit margin was 8.16%. Return on equity was 11.95%. Return on assets was 3.40%. Total cash is $874 million for $2.87 a share. Total debt is $14.92 billion. Current ratio is .628. Beta is a very defensive .53. There are 304.83 million shares outstanding. Institutions have 72.70% of them. The dividend is $2.20 annually which takes 67% of earnings to pay. That gives a yield of 2.2%. Value Line rates the company A for Financial Strength.

Income investors will recognize there's some risk in this stock because of the pending acquisition. If it goes through, it will add to earnings and should help the dividend grow. If it doesn't happen, investors may be disappointed and sell the stock off. But they should know that only 2 years ago the stock was trading at its all-time high of $84 a share so it's already discounting quite a bit of any bad news.

- Company Web site: www.firstenergycorp.com