James Hardie Industries (NYSE:JHX) Rating Lowered to “Neutral” at Macquarie

James Hardie Industries (NYSE:JHX) was downgraded by research analysts at Macquarie from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report released on Monday,Finviz reports.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on JHX. StockNews.com raised shares of James Hardie Industries from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of James Hardie Industries in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of James Hardie Industries in a report on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, James Hardie Industries presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.00.

James Hardie Industries Stock Performance

JHX stock traded down $5.43 during trading on Monday, reaching $23.85. The company had a trading volume of 580,607 shares, compared to its average volume of 90,422. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.18. James Hardie Industries has a twelve month low of $23.84 and a twelve month high of $43.57. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.99. The company has a market cap of $10.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.16 and a beta of 1.84.

James Hardie Industries (NYSE:JHX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The construction company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.01. James Hardie Industries had a net margin of 11.15% and a return on equity of 33.65%. The business had revenue of $953.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $967.63 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that James Hardie Industries will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On James Hardie Industries

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of James Hardie Industries by 76.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 374,164 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $11,528,000 after buying an additional 161,899 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of James Hardie Industries by 20.0% during the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 964,583 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $29,718,000 after acquiring an additional 161,059 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of James Hardie Industries by 19.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 453,206 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $13,963,000 after acquiring an additional 73,504 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its position in James Hardie Industries by 184.4% in the fourth quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 86,531 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $2,666,000 after buying an additional 56,104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ABC Arbitrage SA acquired a new position in James Hardie Industries in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,457,000. Hedge funds and other 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.