Top Utilities Stocks by Gross Margin
Top utilities companies ranked by gross margin, latest annual filings.
What Gross Margin Means for Utilities Companies
Gross margin in utilities reflects what remains after fuel, purchased power, and direct generation or distribution costs are paid. Regulated electric, gas, and water utilities operate inside a framework that allows them to recover prudent costs and earn an authorized return on invested capital, which pulls gross margin toward a fairly narrow and predictable band. That makes the figure much less of a competitive signal than it is in most other sectors.
Why It Matters Less in Utilities
For a regulated utility, the economics are driven by rate base growth and authorized return on equity rather than by pricing power at the gross line. Fuel costs are typically passed through to customers, so gross margin is more about timing and mechanics than strategy. Still, merchant generation and unregulated subsidiaries can show wider gross-margin swings, and year-to-year weather, outages, and regulatory lag can move reported margins in ways that have nothing to do with structural competitive position.
What to Read Alongside
Pair gross margin with Revenue to calibrate the rate-base scale, Operating Margin to incorporate overhead and depreciation, and Return on Equity because authorized ROE is the real lens the sector is run against.
| # | Symbol | Company | Sector | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BIPC | Brookfield Infrastructure Corporation | Utilities | 63.63% | $4.88B |
| 2 | CWEN | Clearway Energy, Inc. | Utilities | 62.91% | $7.00B |
| 3 | TAC | TransAlta Corporation | Utilities | 59.04% | $4.12B |
| 4 | SR | Spire Inc. | Utilities | 58.76% | $5.25B |
| 5 | UGI | UGI Corporation | Utilities | 49.86% | $7.94B |
| 6 | ENIC | Enel Chile S.A. | Utilities | 41.74% | $6.00B |
| 7 | BIP | Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. | Utilities | 26.94% | $18.15B |
| 8 | EDN | Empresa Distribuidora y Comercializadora Norte Sociedad Anónima | Utilities | 22.76% | $616.48M |
| 9 | ELPC | Companhia Paranaense de Energia - COPEL | Utilities | 21.68% | $7.94B |
| 10 | NRG | NRG Energy, Inc. | Utilities | 19.38% | $18.56B |
| 11 | KEP | Korea Electric Power Corporation | Utilities | 16.43% | $14.38B |
| 12 | CTRI | Centuri Holdings, Inc. | Utilities | 8.27% | $2.06B |
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How this ranking is built
Companies are ranked by gross margin as reported in their most recent annual filing with the SEC. Figures shown are in US dollars (or percent, as noted), rounded to two decimals.
- Source: annual 10-K / 20-F filings from companies trading on US exchanges (NYSE, Nasdaq, AMEX).
- Fiscal year: whichever annual period the company has most recently filed. Fiscal years don't always align with the calendar year, so the "as of FY" stamp above reflects the most common year across the table.
- Filtered out: warrants, preferred shares, and duplicate listings that share a parent company's financials.
- Size floor: A company qualifies at $1 billion in annual revenue or above, so a small filer with a freak ratio cannot top the list.
- Value range: Only figures above 0% and up to 100% qualify.
- Narrow cost lines: A company whose cost line holds only part of its direct costs, such as a utility counting only the energy it buys, is left out, because revenue less that line is not a gross margin. Its financials page shows the figure under its own name.
- Cost-classification check: A company whose gross margin runs more than 70 points above its operating margin is left out, because at that gap the split between cost of sales and operating cost is a reporting convention rather than a margin. A company with no usable operating margin, usually because it reports no operating income, is left out too, since the gap cannot be checked.
- Market cap: stated at each company's latest close, which is newer than the annual figure ranked here.
- Update cadence: refreshed as companies file new annual reports (typically within 60–90 days of fiscal year end).
Not financial advice. This is a research tool, not a recommendation.
Frequently asked questions
Why is gross margin a weaker competitive signal for utilities than for most sectors?
Regulated utilities operate under a framework in which rates are set by a public commission to allow the company to recover prudent operating costs and earn an authorized return on invested capital. Fuel and purchased-power costs typically pass through to customers with some lag. Within that structure, gross margin is largely an artifact of how regulators have structured the rate plan rather than a reflection of pricing power or brand. The more meaningful utility metrics relate to the size and growth of the regulated rate base and the authorized return on equity.
What can move a utility's gross margin meaningfully?
Weather, outages, and regulatory lag between when costs are incurred and when they can be recovered in rates are the main short-term drivers. A hot summer or cold winter lifts electricity or gas volumes; a mild season compresses them. Unregulated merchant generation and competitive retail operations can also move the margin based on wholesale power prices. Underlying competitive position changes slowly because the rate-setting process is multi-year and subject to commission approval rather than to market-driven pricing.