Market updates from some of Australia’s top industrial stocks could be weighing on the share price of building materials provider James Hardie ahead of its next results briefing in two weeks.
Shares in James Hardie fell 2 per cent on Thursday, and the stock is down 11.4 per cent since late last month when it hit a six-month high.
It delivers its second quarter results on November 12 for its 2025 financial year to March.
James Hardie, which sells fibre cement siding products for homes, has offered annual net profit guidance for the 2025 fiscal year of between $US630m and $US700m ($946m-$1.05bn).
Analysts are betting that the net profit will come in at $US645m, but based on the conditions of the US market, some believe the group may narrow the guidance towards the lower end.
Offering some insight into the US market, where much of James Hardie’s revenue is derived, has been market updates from global logistics group Brambles and plumbing industry service providers Reliance Worldwide and Reece.
Reece shares fell 7.9 per cent on Thursday when the company downgraded earnings guidance, saying that, as a result of first-quarter trading, it expected adjusted earnings before interest and tax for the first half of the 2025 financial year to be within the range of $300m-$320m.
US sales revenue was down 6.5 per cent in US dollar terms, with lower volumes and ongoing deflation.
Reliance left its guidance largely unchanged while holding its annual general meeting on Thursday, but said that for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, sales guidance would be at the bottom end of its range due to a continued weak plumbing and heating market.
Sales in all other markets would be broadly flat.
Brambles reconfirmed its 2025 financial year guidance but said in its first-quarter trading update that sales were up 3 per cent as volumes were flat.
In the Americas, growth in Canada and Latin America was offset by a decline in US pallets. There was a decline from existing customers in the US, where sales revenue increased 5 per cent.
James Hardie has been a popular stock due to the exposure it provides to the housing markets in Western markets.
Yet The Wall Street Journal reported overnight on Wednesday that sales of existing homes in the US were on track for the worst year since 1995.
It reported in August that new home starts in July were down 16 per cent on the prior year.
Persistently high home prices and elevated mortgage rates are keeping potential home buyers on the sidelines, the WSJ said.
Sales of previously owned homes in the first nine months of the year were lower than the same period last year.
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