Hardie’s Strategy Continues to Unlock Latent Value for Shareholders but Shares Remain Expensive

Our long-term thesis for James Hardie remains unchanged following the delivery of a second-quarter fiscal 2021 result, which aligned with management’s prior guidance and tracked our full-year expectations. Accordingly, our full-year fiscal 2021 net profit forecast of USD 419 million remains unchanged with Hardie’s momentum in North American market share gains persisting into the second quarter. Our net profit forecast sits at the top end of Hardie’s reaffirmed full-year net profit guidance range. Nonetheless, we increase our fair value estimate by 5% to AUD 25.20 as Hardie’s strategy unlocks latent value from within the global fibre cement building products franchise.