If you just can't invest in stocks like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), AMD (NYSE:AMD), or Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) because you're worried about technological obsolescence, marketing missteps, or rampant competition, National Grid (NYSE:NGG) might be right up your alley. It's hard to think of many businesses that are more boring than power and gas transmission/distribution, but there's undeniable money to be made here.
In many cases it is a little risky to try to reduce a business to a simple snippet, but let's give it a go here. In a very basic sense, National Grid is a toll-road operator for electricity and gas. It doesn't produce the electricity and gas (though that will change when National Grid acquires Keyspan and its electricity generation assets), but it charges for their passage through the company's pipes and wires on the way to homes and businesses.
Full-year results -- for the year ended in March of 2006 -- showed the sort of growth that sends momentum investors into catatonia, but suits more risk-averse value and income types just fine. Looking at results without exceptional items and mark-to-market adjustments on hedging deals, the company saw operating profit rise 2% (constant currency), with pre-tax profits up 11%, and earnings per share up about 10%. The company was also solidly free cash flow positive for the year.
Looking at the segment results, some of the benefits of the company's diversification come to the fore. Transmission results were nothing special -- down 2% in the U.K. and down 4% in the U.S., but profits from gas distribution in the U.K. were up 14% and wireless operations jumped about 23%.
As you might imagine, these are highly regulated markets, and that's both good and bad news for National Grid. It's good because it almost guarantees a certain level of profitability, but it's not so good when merger proposals ultimately have to clear a Byzantine system of overlapping regulatory authorities.
I look at National Grid and don't see how I'll get rich quick from the stock. By the same token, I have a hard time seeing how I could look back on these shares in three years and see a gaping crater in my portfolio. So long as management continues its cost containment and sane (and synergistic) acquisition strategy, I don't see why patient and long-term-oriented investors shouldn't consider this idea.
For more Foolish thoughts pertaining to utilities:
National Grid is a Motley Fool Income Investor recommendation. For more coverage of stocks that pay you back, try out Income Investor free for 30 days.
Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).
