Jefferies Financial Group Reiterates Buy Rating for James Hardie Industries (NYSE:JHX)

James Hardie Industries (NYSE:JHX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on JHX. StockNews.com lowered shares of James Hardie Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of James Hardie Industries from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Truist Financial initiated coverage on James Hardie Industries in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.00.

James Hardie Industries Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of JHX stock opened at $33.84 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.02. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $33.45 and a 200-day moving average of $34.68. James Hardie Industries has a 52-week low of $29.88 and a 52-week high of $43.57. The stock has a market cap of $14.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.50, a P/E/G ratio of 4.59 and a beta of 1.80.

James Hardie Industries (NYSE:JHX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The construction company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.01. James Hardie Industries had a net margin of 11.16% and a return on equity of 35.93%. The firm had revenue of $960.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $973.49 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.41 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that James Hardie Industries will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On James Hardie Industries

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of James Hardie Industries by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 18,074 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $616,000 after purchasing an additional 433 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers raised its stake in James Hardie Industries by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 9,695 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $299,000 after buying an additional 482 shares during the last quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA bought a new position in shares of James Hardie Industries in the 4th quarter worth about $1,457,000. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in James Hardie Industries during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in James Hardie Industries by 33.3% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,323 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $133,000 after buying an additional 1,081 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 7.96% of the company’s stock.

James Hardie Industries Company Profile

James Hardie Industries plc manufactures and sells fiber cement, fiber gypsum, and cement bonded building products for interior and exterior building construction applications primarily in the United States, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, and the Philippines. The company operates through North America Fiber Cement, Asia Pacific Fiber Cement, and Europe Building Products segments.