Based on the aggregated intelligence of 165,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, National Grid (NYSE: NGG), which operates regulated electricity and gas infrastructure networks, has earned a respected four-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at National Grid's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

National Grid facts

Headquarters (Founded)

London (1990)

Market Cap

$25.9 billion

Industry

Multi-utilities

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$21.4 billion

Management

CEO Steven Holliday (since 2007)

CFO Stephen Lucas (since 2002)

Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years)

28.9%

Cash/Debt

$3.1 billion / $38.4 billion

Dividend Yield

7.9%

Competitors

AEP (NYSE: AEP)

Consolidated Edison (NYSE: ED)

Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 96% of the 364 members who have rated National Grid believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include CAPS All-Stars latimerburned and TMFDeej, both of whom are ranked in the top 10% of our community.

Just last week, latimerburned tapped the stock as an attractive income opportunity: "Great dividend, solid growth prospects should make this National Grid outperform the S&P which is looking more and more likely to remain fairly rangebound for the next few years."

National Grid may not be a household name, but as the operator of almost all the power wire and natural gas pipes in England and Wales, it certainly serves a whole lot of households. In addition to its dominant position in the U.K., National Grid delivers electricity to roughly 3.3 million customers in the northeastern U.S. and also happens to be the region's biggest natural gas distributor. Despite that massive scale, however, shares of National Grid are off 22% over the past three months.

Of course, with higher historical returns on equity and, now, even a lower P/E than its eastern U.S. rivals Con Edison and AEP, it's easy to see why Fools are so high on National Grid. In addition, CAPS All-Stars like TMFDeej are being drawn to the stock's ultra-attractive yield:

So why is the stock so cheap? Mr. Market certainly did not look kindly upon [National Grid's] decision to raise $4.8 billion in a dilutive, discounted rights offering back in May. What I think people are missing is that National Grid isn't just a stodgy, boring utility that needed to raise money because it had some sort of problem. The company actually plans to put this month to work so that it can grow significantly in the future. ...

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, [National Grid] currently pays a massive dividend of $2.92/ADS. That's equivalent to a yield of 7.7%. Not only is the dividend solid now, but [National Grid] has publicly stated that it plans to raise its dividend by 8% per year through 2012. That puts the company's dividend yield at over 9% in 2012. Anyone want to bet that Mr. Market will adjust [National Grid] up accordingly if the dividend actually does increase as much as company plans?

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