London, May 19, 2026, 12:03 BST
- National Grid’s London quote was up 1.83% at 1,253.50p/1,254.50p in late-morning trade.
- The stock is trying to rebuild after volatile trading around last week’s results and a wider utility-sector selloff.
- Investors are weighing a £70 billion network plan against higher debt, politics and valuation risk.
National Grid plc shares rose again on Tuesday, extending a rebound as investors looked past last week’s profit miss and focused on the UK utility’s long investment runway in power networks. Fidelity data showed the stock quoted at 1,253.50p to sell and 1,254.50p to buy at 11:43 BST, up 1.83%, with prices delayed by at least 15 minutes. Fidelity International
The move matters now because the stock is coming off a rough reset. Utilities led Monday’s FTSE 100 gain, with National Grid up 3.66% and Centrica up 4%, after the blue-chip index closed 1.26% higher at 10,323.75. The Guardian
The question for the market is simple enough: can National Grid fund one of Europe’s largest grid buildouts without squeezing returns? The company says it plans at least £70 billion of capital investment over 2026/27 to 2030/31 and expects underlying EPS — earnings per share excluding some one-off and accounting effects — to rise 13% to 15% in 2026/27.
National Grid’s latest full-year figures gave both sides of that argument something to use. Operating profit rose 10% to £5.43 billion, underlying operating profit rose 6% to £5.68 billion, and capital investment climbed 18% to £11.58 billion. The dividend rose 3.8% to 48.49p a share.
But the company missed its own compiled consensus for adjusted operating profit, Reuters reported, after higher costs to repair storm-linked damage in its U.S. business. Storm-related costs rose 7.4% to £636 million, while CEO Zoë Yujnovich told Reuters the company saw limited impact from U.S. tariffs because about 90% of U.S. procurement comes from local suppliers. Reuters
Yujnovich called the spending plan the “largest investment programme in our history” and said it would modernise networks in Britain and the U.S. Northeast. She is new enough in the job that investors are still testing how much delivery risk sits inside that promise. Nationalgrid
Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, wrote that there were “no surprises” in the results and said higher allowed revenues in transmission helped performance. He added that the size of the plan brings “plenty of execution risk,” a neat summary of the bull case and bear case in one line. Hargreaves Lansdown
UBS is more wary. Analyst Mark Freshney said National Grid trades at a roughly 56% premium to its regulated asset base — the value of assets on which a regulated utility is allowed to earn returns — and the bank kept a sell rating with a 1,160p price target, according to Proactive Investors. UBS also questioned whether data-centre power demand justifies the current valuation. Proactiveinvestors UK
The wider tape helped. The FTSE 100 was up 74 points at 10,398 by late morning, with UK jobs data cooling and traders scaling back concern about near-term Bank of England tightening. That backdrop matters for National Grid because utilities borrow heavily; gilt yields, the returns on UK government bonds, can feed directly into valuation and financing costs. Proactiveinvestors UK
The peer picture is mixed. UBS said UK utility shares fell 7.5% on May 15, far worse than continental European utilities, and highlighted that National Grid and SSE both face large annual debt issuance needs. It named Pennon as its preferred stock in the sector while calling National Grid its least preferred name. Proactiveinvestors UK
The risk is that the rebound proves thin. Higher borrowing costs, political pressure over utility ownership, slower asset-base growth or delays to grid projects could hit earnings and valuation at the same time. That is the downside case: a capital-hungry company forced to spend fast while investors demand a bigger discount.
For now, buyers are giving National Grid another look. The stock is no longer trading just on last week’s storm-cost miss; it is trading on whether a £70 billion grid plan can become cash earnings without another funding scare.
