[isatrader]

Is that a reason to avoid utilities stocks?

I think it depends on what your investing goals are. Steady average returns with good dividends or trying to outperform the market. If the latter, which is what Stage Analysis is about, then personally I'd generally avoid utilities most of the time, as to get outperformance you need to make much larger than average returns on at least a few trades, and keep losses as low as possible. i.e. never below -10% a trade on average imo.