- James Halstead’s share price LON:JHD dipped slightly as it posted a final trading update ahead of its interim figures
- Commercial flooring specialist James Halstead has published its final trading update ahead of its interim results, to the end of December 2024.
- The statement was relatively brief, as is often the way before stocks move into a closed period.
However, management did reveal that sales at the group are running slightly below last year, whilst profits before tax are comparable to those seen in the first half of 2024.
The firm said that it had detected:
“More caution following the incoming government’s first budget and the subsequent changes to living wage and national insurance”
and added that
“UK sales in the first six months are in line with the comparative, but (they) have been constrained, in part, as a result of lower confidence, leading to customers revising their capital spend and deferring renewal”
Its UK distributor network has also been de-stocking, though that negativity has been offset by a large backlog of repairs and renewal work for the firm in both the UK health and education sectors.
That backlog means that James Halstead’s management remains optimistic about the business’s prospects in the UK.
Overseas trading has been mixed, with a decline in sales in Australia and New Zealand, offset by gradual improvements in the Americas, the Middle East and Mediterranean markets.
The company has cash levels that are similar to those seen in 2023 at £62.40 million and expectations are that full-year pre-tax profits will be in line with analyst’s forecasts.
Aim-listed the company is no minnow, with a market cap of £721.0 million and daily trading volumes of around 189,000 shares which it has exceeded in today’s session.
However, the company’s share price has dipped modestly, post the trading update, which brokers describe as being in line.
James Halstead will publish its interim results on the 31st of March when we will get a more complete picture of how the commercial flooring market is faring both at home and abroad.
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