Share count
546Mpeak FY2026
← All companies ← JHG Manual JJSF → ← JCI Building Products LII →
JHX, James Hardie Industries plc.
Building Products capital-intensive
James Hardie Industries plc is a leading provider of exterior home and outdoor living solutions, serving the new home construction, repair and remodel and outdoor living markets.
Our current primary geographic markets include the United States of America ("US," "USA" or the "United States"), Australia and Europe.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2026
$4.8B
+24.7% YoY
Vital signs · TTM, with 3-yr average
Revenue $4.8B 3-yr avg $4.2B
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What it is
- Revenue is led by Siding & Trim (61%) and Deck, Rail & Accessories (16%), with 2 more segments behind.
- What moves the needle
- Gross margin has run about 39% and operating margin about 17% through the cycle, a solid spread between what it charges and what the product costs to make. Capital spending runs about 11% of sales, well above depreciation, so the return earned on what it sinks into that plant weighs as much as the margin. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on capital has run in the teens (median 16%, above 15% in 2 of 3 years). Owner earnings agree: roughly 15% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. Returns like these are solid but short of clear franchise economics; whether they hold is what the 10-K settles, not the multiple.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →Siding & Trim is 61% of revenue, with Deck, Rail & Accessories the other meaningful segment at 16%.
Revenue by reportable segment, FY2026
- Siding & Trim61%$3.0B
- Deck, Rail & Accessories16%$795M
- Europe12%$557M
- Australia & New Zealand11%$521M
By geographyUnited States73%Australia9%Other Countries8%Canada4%Germany3%New Zealand2%
From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2024–2026
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2024’24 | 2025’25 | 2026’26 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | ||||
| $3.9B | $3.9B | $4.8B | $4.8B | RevenueRevenue |
| 40% | 39% | 36% | 36% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| 15% | 15% | 20% | 20% | SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev |
| 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | R&D / revenueR&D/rev |
| $767M | $656M | $448M | $448M | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| 19.5% | 16.9% | 9.3% | 9.3% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| $510M | $424M | $104M | $104M | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 32% | 34% | 50% | 50% | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | ||||
| $914M | $803M | $590M | $590M | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $185M | $216M | $494M | $494M | DepreciationDeprec. |
| $191M | $140M | ($46M) | ($46M) | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $449M | $422M | $384M | $384M | CapexCapex |
| 11.4% | 10.9% | 7.9% | 7.9% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| $729M | $587M | $206M | $206M | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 18.5% | 15.1% | 4.3% | 4.3% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| $465M | $381M | $206M | $206M | Free cash flowFCF |
| 11.8% | 9.8% | 4.3% | 4.3% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| $0 | $0 | $3.9B | $3.9B | AcquisitionsAcquis. |
| $271M | $150M | $0 | — | BuybacksBuybacks |
| 36% | 16% | 2% | 2% | ROICROIC |
| 27% | 20% | 2% | 2% | Return on equityROE |
| 27% | 20% | 2% | 2% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | ||||
| $416M | $563M | $269M | $269M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| — | $347M | $636M | $636M | InventoryInvent. |
| — | $233M | $351M | $351M | Accounts payablePayables |
| — | $115M | $284M | $284M | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| — | $1.7B | $1.8B | $1.8B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| — | $810M | $1.2B | $1.2B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| — | 2.1× | 1.6× | 1.6× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| $193M | $194M | $4.8B | $4.8B | GoodwillGoodwill |
| — | $5.2B | $13.7B | $13.7B | Total assetsAssets |
| — | $1.1B | $4.5B | $4.5B | Total debtDebt |
| — | $557M | $4.3B | $4.3B | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| 50.2× | 63.7× | 1.9× | 1.9× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| $1.9B | $2.2B | $6.4B | $6.4B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| 0.7% | 0.6% | 0.8% | 0.8% | Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev |
| Per share | ||||
| 440M | 432M | 546M | 546M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $8.95 | $8.97 | $8.86 | $8.86 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $1.16 | $0.98 | $0.19 | $0.19 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $1.66 | $1.36 | $0.38 | $0.38 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $1.06 | $0.88 | $0.38 | $0.38 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| $1.02 | $0.98 | $0.70 | $0.70 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| $4.23 | $5.00 | $11.78 | $11.78 | Book value / shareBVPS |
The record, charted
FY2024–2026Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
ROIC
2%low FY2026
Gross margin
36%low FY2026
Owner earnings vs. net income
Owner earningsNet incomeThe accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.
$206Mowner earningsvs.$104Mnet incomelow FY2026
Where the cash went
ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cashEach year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.
FY2024FY2026
Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.
In fiscal 2026 the business turned $104M of profit into $206M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.
| FY2026 | FY2025 | FY2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | $104M | $424M | $510M |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$494M | +$216M | +$185M |
| Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost | +$38M | +$23M | +$28M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | −$46M | +$140M | +$191M |
| Cash from operations | $590M | $803M | $914M |
| Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume | −$384M | −$216M | −$185M |
| Owner earnings | $206M | $587M | $729M |
| Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still | — | −$206M | −$264M |
| Free cash flow | $206M | $381M | $465M |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 4% | 15% | 19% |
Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $38M), owner earnings is nearer $168M.
Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
FY2026 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →
Will it survive?
- ThinOperating income $448M ÷ interest expense $231M
What this means
Operating profit covers interest, but with little room. A bad year, a refinancing at higher rates, or a revenue wobble closes the gap fast.
- How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $4.3B · 9.5× operating profitHeavy net debtCash $269M − debt $4.5B
What this means
Netting $269M of cash and short-term investments against $4.5B of debt leaves $4.3B owed, about 9.5× a year's operating profit (10.1× on the gross debt, before the cash). Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Is it a good business?
- High through the cycle3-yr median, range 2%–36%; 2% latest = NOPAT $225M ÷ invested capital $10.7BIndustry peers: median 11%
What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 3 years (it ran 2% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
- High through the cycle3-yr median margin, range 4%–19%; latest $206M = operating cash $590M − maintenance capex $384MIndustry peers: median 11%
What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 4% of revenue this year, a 15% median across 3 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $38M of SBC) leaves $168M.
- Cash-backedCash from ops $590M ÷ net income $104M
In the filing’s words The filing leans on adjusted, non-GAAP earnings, but the GAAP profit is itself cash-backed — the adjustments are not papering over a cash shortfall here.
What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.
How is the cash used?
- Reinvests most of itDividends + buybacks $0 ÷ Owner Earnings $206M
What this means
Of $206M Owner Earnings, $0 (0%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $0 buybacks. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.
- Investing or harvesting? 0.78×HarvestingCapex $384M ÷ depreciation $494M
What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.
Graham’s defensive tests · 1 of 3 met
Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.
- Adequate size PassRevenue ≥ $2B · $4.8B
What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
- Strong liquidity NearCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 1.58×
What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
- Conservative debt MissDebt ≤ working capital · $4.5B vs $669M WC
What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
- Moderate price —P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $0.60/share (latest year $0.18), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $11.07/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Moderate contestabilityAI is likely to reshape costs and some products here without clearly contesting or sparing the core moat; how the company itself frames it is the tell.
In its own filing A competitive risk, new this year
Its FY2026 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.
“It is possible that the artificial intelligence tools we use may negatively affect our reputation, disrupt our operations, or have a material adverse impact on our financial results.”
The question is whether a moat the record shows as durable outlasts a technology that lowers the cost of part of what the firm sells. The durability is read in the record above, the filing's own framing of AI beside it; the industry label decides nothing on its own.
Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of fiscal year-end, Mar 31, 2026Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
Current assets$1.8B
- Cash & short-term investments$269M
- Inventory$636M
- Other current assets$922M
Current liabilities$1.2B
- Debt due within a year$44M
- Accounts payable$351M
- Other current liabilities$762M
Current ratio1.58×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.03×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.23×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$669Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$44M due · $269M cash
covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet
Deeper floors
Tangible book value($1.7B)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($5.4B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$4.7B$147M of it operating leases
From the company's latest filing.
Debt maturity
the debt note, SEC EDGAR →Not how much it owes, but when it falls due, and against what. The ladder the company files, beside cash on hand and a year's owner earnings.
Bars scaled to the largest single year; “later” is everything due after 2031, shown apart since it dwarfs the years.
Due in the next 12 months$44Mthe first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year
Within two years$520Mthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions
Biggest single year$2.1Bin 2031the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest
Total scheduled principal$4.6Bevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it
Against what the business has and earns
Cash & short-term investments, Mar 31, 2026$269M
One year of owner earnings (FY2026)$206M
Together, against $44M due next year10.8×
Cash on hand as of Mar 31, 2026 plus a year’s owner earnings comes to $475M against the $44M due in the twelve months after the Mar 31, 2026 schedule: 11 times it.
Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Mar 31, 2026 annual report and reconciled to the total the table states.
Acquisitions & goodwill
from the balance sheet & the 3-year cash-flow recordGoodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.
Goodwill & intangibles$8.1B59% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired
Against book equity74%goodwill is this share of book equity; the rest is the company’s own retained and paid-in capital
Cash spent acquiring$3.9Bover 3 years buying other businesses, against $1.3B of capital spent building
None written down over the record; the goodwill is still carried at full cost. That is the deals holding their value on the books so far; whether they keep doing so is the test an owner watches, since the write-down, when it comes, is the admission the price was too high.
Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 3-year record, from the company's own filings.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.
| Fiscal year | Chief executive | Pay, as filed | “Actually paid” | Owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Mr. Erter | $11.1M | $45.1M | $729M |
| 2025 | Mr. Erter | $10.9M | −$12.5M | $587M |
| 2026 | Mr. Erter | $6.5M | −$2.5M | $206M |
Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.
- Stock-based compensation$38M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 8% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
What an owner would ask, FY2026
read the 10-K →- How much of the revenue rides on one buyer?≈$484M · 10% of revenue on the largest customer (TTM)
“We had one customer who contributed over 10% of net sales in each of the past three fiscal years.”verify →
- Which reported numbers are a judgment call?Management names Income taxes, Inventory, Acquisitions as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →
The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.
Peers, Building Products
The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.
| Company | Revenue | Gross margin | Op. margin | ROIC | Owner earn. margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRHCRH Public Limited Company | $37.4B | 34% | 12.0% | 12% | 9% |
| AMRZAmrize Ltd | $11.8B | 26% | 16.2% | — | 12% |
| OCOwens Corning Inc Common Stock New | $10.1B | 25% | 12.4% | 8% | 11% |
| OIO-I Glass Inc. | $6.4B | 18% | 5.5% | 6% | 3% |
| JHXJames Hardie Industries plc. | $4.8B | 39% | 16.9% | 16% | 15% |
| EXPEagle Materials | $2.3B | — | 28.6% | 18% | 20% |
| APOGApogee Enterprises Inc. | $1.4B | 23% | 7.5% | 11% | 6% |
| TGLSTecnoglass Inc. | $984M | 39% | 20.5% | 20% | 12% |
| Group median | — | 26% | 14.3% | 12% | 12% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFType today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what James Hardie Industries plc. has delivered.
$
Base
—
The assumptions
9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.
Enter a price above to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Implied by the price—
Owner-earnings growth · since FY2024−33%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · since FY2024−47%/yr
Owner-earnings yield—
What a growth belief costs, in multiples
The growth each return requires, at your price
P/E (3-yr earnings ’24–’26)—
P/B—
Graham’s price gate—
Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.
Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%
Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.
Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.
Owner-earnings yield—
High-grade bond yield—
Margin over the bond—
Owner earnings $206M on 580M shares outstanding, per the 10-K cover, as of 2026-04-30; net debt $4.3B. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "James Hardie Industries plc. (JHX), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/JHX, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← JHG its page in the Manual JJSF →
Industry order: ← JCI the Building Products chapter LII →