The 1 Energy Stock I'd Buy if I Could Only Pick One Right Now

If the crisis over the Strait of Hormuz has done nothing else, it has made the fragility of the world's oil and gas infrastructure plain for everyone to see. Many countries have already started shifting toward nuclear power in the past couple of years for environmental reasons; now there's a geopolitical reason, too.

There are 75 new reactors under construction around the world right now with another 120 planned, and all of them need uranium to run. And Cameco (NYSE: CCJ) is one of the best companies in the industry.

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Yello rocks, green dollars

In its natural state, uranium is a yellow irradiated lump of rock.

Cameco, which is based in Canada, extracts those yellow rocks from the ground and either sells them to refineries or refines them itself into fuel for one of the most efficient and lowest-emission forms of power generation. The company is present throughout almost every part of the nuclear fuel supply chain.

Its Cigar Lake and McArthur River mines are the highest-grade and the largest high-grade uranium mines in the world. These two, along with its Inkai mine in Kazakhstan, provided 14% of the 173 million pounds of uranium produced globally in 2025. That makes Cameco the second-largest uranium miner in the world by production, behind only Kazakhstan's state-run Kazatomprom.

Besides its mining, Cameco also operates the world's largest commercial uranium refinery with its Blind River plant. It runs the Port Hope facility, Canada's only uranium conversion plant. And the company's fuel manufacturing plant in Ontario is where it produces finished fuel rods for reactors around the world.

Lastly, Cameco even has a hand in the nuclear reactor industry through its 49% joint-venture ownership of Westinghouse. The engineering company is behind the AP1000, the most advanced commercially available nuclear reactor in the world.

China has 4 of them with 14 under construction, the U.S. has 2 with another 10 planned, India has selected for 6, Ukraine has 2 under contract and another 7 selected, Poland has 3 under contract, Czechia and Bulgaria each have 2 under contract, and Slovakia has selected 1.

What that means is that Cameco's uranium is likely fueling reactors it also profits from. That's certainly going to be the case in India once it completes its AP1000s. In March, the company entered into a $1.9 billion supply agreement with the Indian government. Cameco will supply the country with 22 million pounds of uranium ore concentrate between 2027 and 2035.

And on the financial front, things are looking up for the company. It followed a stellar 2025 with a fantastic 2026 first quarter. Revenue grew 7% over 2025, and its earnings per share (EPS) rose 88%. Management also grew its already impressive net profit margin from 16.9% to 18.39% and maintained its strong 0.14 total debt-to-equity ratio.

Cameco is fueling the future and is already profiting from it. If I could only pick one energy stock, this would be it. That's why it's in my portfolio and why I think it's worth consideration for yours.

James Hires has positions in Cameco. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Cameco. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.