London, March 17, 2026, 15:05 GMT
National Grid clawed back some ground in London on Tuesday, with shares up 0.5% at 1,362.75 pence by 1455 GMT, recovering a slice of Monday’s 1.27% slide. Investors faced a tug-of-war between a new UBS sell rating and the British utility’s expanded growth ambitions.
National Grid stands out among London utilities this year. The stock has climbed roughly 19.5% since Jan. 1, after the company extended its framework to FY31 on March 2, mapping out a minimum of £70 billion in cumulative investment. Management also projected FY27 adjusted earnings per share would be up 13%-15%.
Utilities caught a bid—Reuters pegged the sector up 1.4% by 1042 GMT, with investors showing a preference for reliable earnings ahead of the Bank of England’s move. Later on, the FTSE 100 climbed 1.0%, according to Reuters market data. But National Grid didn’t follow along: Monday’s drop landed on 6.6 million shares, surpassing the 50-day average, and shares ended below the March 2 high of 1,429p.
UBS injected a fresh dose of caution, downgrading National Grid to Sell on Monday. The bank did lift its price target to 1,160p, but as flagged by Investing.com, UBS estimates the shares are trading at around a 57% premium to the regulated asset base, or RAB—the network value utilities use to generate allowed returns. That, UBS warned, bakes in spending and return forecasts that could prove tough to hit.
No clear consensus emerging here. James Brand over at Deutsche Bank stuck with his Buy rating and bumped his target up to 1,430p, according to a MarketScreener summary. UBS, on the other hand, flagged a preference for Pennon, Italgas in Italy, and Spain’s Redeia among the regulated grid stocks.
National Grid hasn’t exactly been shy about its optimism. In a March 2 filing, the firm projected group assets climbing to roughly £115 billion by FY31, pointing to a new five-year strategy. The plan targets annual underlying EPS growth of 8%-10% off an FY26 baseline. Chief Executive Zoë Yujnovich summed up the approach as “disciplined execution, at scale.” OTC Markets
National Grid’s strategy hinges on RIIO-T3—Ofgem’s upcoming five-year price-control framework for UK electricity transmission, set to kick in this April—alongside a string of recent U.S. regulatory decisions and a surge in demand from data centres and AI, the company said. National Grid operates electricity and gas networks across Britain and the U.S. Northeast.
There’s more in play here. On March 11, Ofgem said National Grid Electricity Transmission would pay £20 million into its voluntary redress scheme after past lapses at the Harker site. UBS, for its part, pointed to consumer affordability, planning reform, and ongoing supply-chain issues as possible stumbling blocks for the current spending plan. With shares still hanging on to most of their gains since the guidance, execution could matter more than the headline figures this time.
