, Columnist
Wall Street’s Utility Players Are Now Profit Machines
Companies including S&P Global and Moody’s have become indispensable to the financial ecosystem.
The financial pulse.
Photographer: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North AmericaThis article is for subscribers only.
If I were to ask investors to name the best businesses in America, I suspect many would point to the Magnificent Seven, and understandably so. Technology giants such as Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc. are near monopolies that churn out reliably outsized profits.
Fewer, I’m guessing, would name the handful of companies that are arguably the Magnificent Seven’s biggest beneficiaries — businesses whose industry dominance and profitability are just as compelling and may prove to be more enduring.