LONDON, June 20, 2026, 21:03 BST
- National Grid closed at 1,212 pence on Friday, up 1.81% on the day and 0.25% for the week.
- The FTSE 100 lost 1% in its weakest week since early May as political and geopolitical uncertainty pushed British bond yields higher.
- Berenberg raised its price target to 1,350 pence from 1,300 pence but retained a Neutral rating.
National Grid shares staged a late-week rebound on Friday, gaining 21.5 pence to 1,212 pence while the FTSE 100 fell 0.35%. The London market is closed for the weekend.
The bounce prevented a weekly decline, though it did not settle the bigger valuation argument around the utility. National Grid remains about 15% below its March 2 high of 1,428.5 pence, leaving investors to weigh its expanding regulated investment base against higher financing costs.
That matters now because the bond market has turned less friendly to utilities. The Bank of England held its benchmark rate at 3.75% on Thursday, but two of nine policymakers voted for an increase. Gilt yields rose as markets absorbed stubborn inflation concerns and political uncertainty.
National Grid’s week was choppy rather than directional. The shares advanced 1.24% on Tuesday, then dropped 2.1% on Thursday to about £11.91 before Friday’s recovery. Turnover on Friday reached almost 42 million shares, unusually heavy compared with earlier sessions.
A Friday regulatory filing disclosed conditional long-term share awards for Chief Executive Zoë Yujnovich and Chief Financial Officer Andy Agg. The awards, covering 450,132 and 246,057 shares respectively, may vest from June 2029 subject to performance and employment conditions. It was a remuneration disclosure, not a trading update.
Broker opinion remains supportive, but hardly unanimous. Morgan Stanley recently named National Grid and peer SSE among its preferred UK utilities, rating both Overweight and setting a £14.75 target for National Grid. The bank argued that policy fears had been overdone, while warning that persistently high bond yields posed the greater near-term threat. Utilities are often treated as “long-duration” stocks, meaning much of their value rests on cash flows expected many years from now. Investing
The fundamental case rests on scale. National Grid plans at least £70 billion of investment over five years after spending a record £11.6 billion in its latest financial year. It reported underlying earnings per share of 78 pence and continues to expect adjusted EPS growth of 13%-15% in the year ending March 2027.
David Harrison, fund manager and head of sustainability at Rathbones Asset Management, said National Grid was “in a strong position to make effective long-term capital spending decisions” and viewed its assets as attractively valued. The same grid-expansion theme supports companies such as SSE, though their generation assets give them a different risk profile. Morningstar
But the downside is visible. National Grid’s latest annual adjusted operating profit missed market expectations after storm-repair costs in its U.S. business, while £636 million of under-recoveries weighed on cash collection. Under-recovery is regulated revenue the company was allowed to earn but had not yet collected from customers. More severe storms, project delays or stubbornly high borrowing costs could narrow the return from its capital programme.
For the week ahead, National Grid has no scheduled investor event; its next listed event is the annual meeting on July 14. That leaves the share price exposed mainly to movements in gilts, UK political headlines and developments in U.S.-Iran relations when London trading resumes on Monday.
