James Hardie Industries (NYSE:JHX) Rating Increased to Overweight at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of James Hardie Industries (NYSE:JHX) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research report report published on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on JHX. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of James Hardie Industries in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Macquarie downgraded James Hardie Industries from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of James Hardie Industries in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price objective for the company. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of James Hardie Industries from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.00.

James Hardie Industries Price Performance

NYSE:JHX opened at $24.25 on Monday. James Hardie Industries has a 52 week low of $23.31 and a 52 week high of $43.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.18. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $32.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.90. The firm has a market cap of $10.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.01, a P/E/G ratio of 6.16 and a beta of 1.84.

James Hardie Industries (NYSE:JHX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The construction company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $953.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $967.63 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that James Hardie Industries will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of James Hardie Industries

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. M&T Bank Corp bought a new position in James Hardie Industries in the third quarter valued at about $293,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of James Hardie Industries by 58.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 37,771 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,517,000 after purchasing an additional 13,981 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of James Hardie Industries by 22.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 160,273 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $6,435,000 after purchasing an additional 29,401 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in James Hardie Industries by 262.7% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 3,286 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $101,000 after purchasing an additional 2,380 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in James Hardie Industries by 67.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 51,074 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $2,051,000 after purchasing an additional 20,496 shares during the last quarter. 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.