The James Hardie Industries PLC (ASX: JHX) share price is feeling the heat on Tuesday, trading slightly in the red after the company's first-quarter FY25 results failed to impress investors.
Shares opened lower and have struggled to regain footing as the market digests the latest figures.
At the time of writing, the James Hardie is swapping hands at $49.47 apiece, more than 0.6% down.
Let's see what the company posted.
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James Hardie share price dips on mixed Q1 FY25 results
There was a blend of positive and not-so-stellar metrics for James Hardie during the quarter:
- Net sales were up 4% year over year to $992 million
- Adjusted pre-tax income Increased by 1% to $236 million, with a margin of 23.8%, down 70 basis points
- Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) lifted 2% to $286 million
- Adjusted EBITDA margin was 28.8%, down 40 basis points year over year
- Adjusted diluted EPS increased by 4% year over year to $0.41
What else happened in Q1 FY25?
Beyond the headline numbers, James Hardie invested $130 million in capital expenditures during the quarter.
While the company achieved a record first-quarter adjusted EBITDA, the slight declines in EBITDA margins might have raised some eyebrows.
Moreover, the North American segment – a significant contributor to the company's revenues – posted net sales growth of just 5%, with an EBIT margin of 31.2%.
But sales in its Asia Pacific business were down 2% year over year, "due to a -9% decrease in volumes".
In a move to enhance shareholder returns, James Hardie repurchased 2.4 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $31.42.
The board also approved a $50 million increase to the existing share repurchase program, bringing it to $300 million. Despite these efforts, the James Hardie share price has struggled to gain momentum since the announcement.
What did management say?
James Hardie's CEO, Aaron Erter, commented on the quarterly performance:
We achieved a solid start to our fiscal year, enabled by our teams' focus on safely delivering the highest quality products, solutions and services to our customers.
We are executing on our strategy, delivering on our commitments and managing decisively as we continue to scale the organization and invest to profitably grow our business.
What's next?
Looking ahead, James Hardie reaffirmed its full-year FY25 guidance. The company expects North American volumes between 2.95 to 3.15 billion standard feet.
It also projects pre-tax margins ranging from 29% – 31%. Adjusted Net Income is projected to be between $630 million to $700 million, with capital expenditures slated at $500 million to $550 million.
However, Erter cautioned about the near-term market conditions:
We continue to expect the North American market for exterior products to be down low to mid-single digits over the course of our fiscal year, and now anticipate that the market backdrop will be particularly challenging during our fiscal second quarter.
James Hardie share price snapshot
Over the past year, the James Hardie share price has experienced its fair share of ups and downs.
The stock is down more than 12% this year to date but has held a nearly 7% gain over the past twelve months.
