Income investors will be pleased to hear that National Grid (NG.) increased its final dividend for the year to 31 March, sticking to its policy of growing the annual payout by at least retail price index inflation. This was despite underlying operating profit coming in flat at £3.45bn, falling short of analyst consensus of £3.58bn (as compiled by FactSet). Earnings were weighed down by an additional £117m provision for customer bad debts in the US, reflecting the impact of Covid-19.
IC TIP:
Hold
at
949p