{"id":43186,"date":"2026-05-21T03:21:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T03:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/43186\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T03:21:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T03:21:50","slug":"leading-bank-reiterates-sell-rating-on-national-grid-with-1160p-price-target-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/43186\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading bank reiterates &#8216;sell&#8217; rating on National Grid with 1,160p price target"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/589cae18bb3ae83cd3fda714546d0ee7.jpeg\" alt=\"Leading bank reiterates 'sell' rating on National Grid with 1,160p price target\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"556\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-lglytj  loaded\"\/> Leading bank reiterates &#8216;sell&#8217; rating on National Grid with 1,160p price target Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock      <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">UBS has reiterated its sell rating on <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/NG..l\" data-ylk=\"slk:National Grid PLC (LSE:NG.);elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;National Grid PLC (LSE&quot;}\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">National Grid PLC (LSE:NG.)<\/a>, the FTSE 100 energy networks group, with a price target of 1,160p, arguing the stock is expensive after a sustained rally that has taken shares to 1,210p.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Analyst Mark Freshney said the stock trades at a combined premium to its regulated asset base of around 56%, with a post-scrip dividend yield of just 2.9%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The note, published after new chief executive Zo\u00eb Yujnovich presented her first strategic update since taking the role six months ago, acknowledged the company&#8217;s growing focus on artificial intelligence and data centre demand but questioned whether the opportunity justifies the current valuation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">National Grid believes there will be 19 gigawatts of incremental UK electricity load over the next five years, with 10 gigawatts coming from data centres, although UBS assumes a more conservative three gigawatts of new data centre connections by 2031.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Freshney pointed to very high UK power prices as a potential deterrent, though Yujnovich pushed back, citing conversations with datacentre developers indicating strong demand for prompt build and quick ramp-up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The company&#8217;s single largest capital commitment is \u00a331 billion in UK transmission, much of which relates to 17 large-scale projects under the Accelerating Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) programme, with all projects expected to be in the planning process by the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">UBS flagged an upcoming catalyst on 21 May relating to the distribution price control methodology, which it views as potentially negative.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The broker also warned that interest costs and the pace of asset base growth represent downside risks to earnings, scoring both consensus surprise and earnings skew risk at two out of five.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">UBS forecasts earnings per share of 77.4p for the year to March 2026, rising to 88p the following year, with a dividend yield of around 3.8% at current levels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The bank estimates National Grid&#8217;s net debt will rise from \u00a343.9 billion in March 2026 to \u00a373 billion by March 2030 as it funds the transmission buildout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leading bank reiterates &#8216;sell&#8217; rating on National Grid with 1,160p price target Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21249],"tags":[5183,21873,2580,5758,4424],"class_list":["post-43186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-national-grid","tag-data-centre","tag-mark-freshney","tag-national-grid","tag-stock-trades","tag-target"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116610422682084096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}