James Hardie has confirmed it will resume paying ordinary dividends later this year after reporting a 9% increase in full-year net profit to $US262.8 million ($338.2 million).
Hardie said in Tuesday’s 4th (March) quarter and full year results release that it is aiming for a first-half 2022 dividend to be declared in November.
The firm last made a regular payout of 11.75 cents a share in November 2019.
It delivered a special unfranked dividend of 70 US cents a share in February of this year.
Hardie shares have been hot recently and they hit an all-time high of $A44.57 last month.
But yesterday they dipped 4.5% to end at $40.20, a long way from that high as investors sold on the news of the result which the company had already guided to.
For the three months ended March 31 the company reported a 20% increase in sales to $US807 million and a 44% jump in adjusted net income to $US124.9 million (adjusted net income is not a standard profit measure).
This saw full year sales rising 12% higher year on year to $US$2.908 billion, with adjusted net income rising 30% to $US458 million.
This appears to have fallen short of the market’s expectations.
The company told the ASX that guidance for the 2021-22 year has adjusted net income in a range between $US520 million and $US570 million. That’s a solid rise of 21% but the ASX investor didn’t buy it yesterday and down went the shares.
Hardie said on Tuesday that it “is experiencing strong growth momentum in its businesses across all three regions. Residential and market growth in the USA is expected to continue.
Hardie CEO, Dr. Jack Truong, said in the earnings release, “I am proud of our globally integrated team’s ability to close out the fiscal year with a fourth quarter of exceptionally strong results. We have now delivered eight consecutive quarters of consistent profitable growth, including record financial results each of the past three quarters.
“Our expanded focus for fiscal year 2022 and beyond is to execute on the three strategic initiatives that we introduced in February 2021. This includes commercializing global product innovation, further penetrating into existing and new market opportunities, and extending the James Hardie brand from a premium professional brand into a market-leading consumer brand.
“We are on or ahead of plan for each of these initiatives,” he said.
