Jefferies Financial Group Initiates Coverage on James Hardie Industries (NYSE:JHX)

Key Points

• Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on James Hardie Industries (NYSE:JHX), setting a "buy" rating and a price target of $34.00, indicating a potential upside of 20.89%.
• The stock has received multiple ratings, with one hold, eight buy ratings, and one strong buy rating, leading to an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $36.67.
• Shares of James Hardie Industries have shown a 1.5% increase to open at $28.13 following the announcement of new research coverage.

Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of James Hardie Industries (NYSE:JHX - Get Free Report) in a note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage set a "buy" rating and a $34.00 price target on the construction company's stock. Jefferies Financial Group's target price suggests a potential upside of 20.31% from the stock's current price.

JHX has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Baird R W upgraded James Hardie Industries to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Robert W. Baird began coverage on James Hardie Industries in a report on Friday, July 11th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $32.00 price target for the company. Macquarie upgraded James Hardie Industries from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. William Blair started coverage on James Hardie Industries in a report on Friday, June 27th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of James Hardie Industries from $45.00 to $35.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $36.67.

James Hardie Industries Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of NYSE JHX traded up $0.55 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $28.26. The company had a trading volume of 4,145,579 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,403,188. The company has a market capitalization of $12.15 billion, a PE ratio of 28.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.74. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.12. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. James Hardie Industries has a one year low of $19.72 and a one year high of $43.57.

James Hardie Industries (NYSE:JHX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 20th. The construction company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.01). James Hardie Industries had a net margin of 10.94% and a return on equity of 31.52%. The company had revenue of $971.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $983.86 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.61 EPS. James Hardie Industries's revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that James Hardie Industries will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On James Hardie Industries

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of James Hardie Industries by 241.0% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 12,718,075 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $341,989,000 after buying an additional 8,988,938 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in shares of James Hardie Industries by 59,775.3% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 5,325,912 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $125,478,000 after buying an additional 5,317,017 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new stake in shares of James Hardie Industries in the first quarter valued at approximately $90,526,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of James Hardie Industries by 160.7% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,697,663 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $63,557,000 after buying an additional 1,662,743 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of James Hardie Industries by 5,001.3% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 997,875 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $23,510,000 after buying an additional 978,314 shares during the period. 7.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.