James Hardie Industries plc (ASX: JHX), the ASX-listed Ireland-headquartered building products business, released its preliminary financial results for its 2018 financial year this morning.
In an announcement to the ASX, James Hardie reported a 7% rise in net sales but a 47% fall in net profit to $US146 million. However, on a “group adjusted net operating” basis, James Hardie said its profit rose 17% to $US291 million.
“Our North America Fiber Cement Segment for the quarter and full year delivered top line growth of 6%, driven primarily by higher net prices,” CEO Louis Gries said. “In the first half of the year, our exterior volume growth was below our expectations and lower than market growth, as volume was significantly impacted by our capacity constrained position.”
Despite that Mr Gries said the signs were and are promising for both the company and the market.
“However, in the second half of the year we began to build momentum and exteriors volume for the second half of the year grew in-line with our market index,” Gries added. “Additionally, we exited fiscal year 2018 with an EBIT margin at the top end of our target range and our manufacturing performance within expected levels, despite input costs which continue to increase.”
James Hardie announced it will pay a final dividend of US30 cents per security, on top of the US10 cents paid in the first half of the financial year.
Looking ahead, the company expects steady growth in the US housing market with between 1.2 and 1.3 million new construction starts.
“We enter fiscal year 2019 with no constraints on capacity and are focused on driving improved primary demand growth,” Mr Gries added.
ASX-listed shares of James Hardie were trading 2.9% higher early Tuesday morning, according to Google Finance.
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