The Boral Ltd (ASX: BLD) share price is on course to end the week on a high.
In morning trade, the building materials company's shares are up 13% to a 52-week high of $6.10.
This follows the release of a strong half-year result.
Boral share price jumps on strong profit growth and guidance upgrade
Here's a summary of how the company performed during the six months ended 31 December:
- Revenue up 9.4% to $1,839.9 million
- Underlying EBIT up 110.9% to $201 million
- Underlying net profit after tax up 143% to $138.6 million
- No interim dividend
- FY 2024 EBIT guidance upgraded
What happened during the half?
During the first half, Boral's revenue increased 9.4% to $1,839.9 million. This was driven largely by strong price realisation, with volumes flat to slightly up on the prior corresponding period.
And thanks to a 520 basis-point improvement in its EBIT margin, Boral's EBIT was up a massive 110.9% to $201.0 million. This margin improvement reflects a combination of higher revenue and rigorous cost management.
Finally, although the company's underlying profit after tax increased by 143.9% to $138.6 million, the Boral board decided against paying a dividend. It advised that this was due to its low franking credit balance.
Management commentary
Boral's CEO, Vik Bansal, was pleased with the company's performance. He said:
I am pleased to report first half results that demonstrate the benefits of our operating model and our business improvement strategy. Our volumes were flat to slightly up on pcp, with an increase in quarry and recycling materials. We achieved good price realisation across all product lines, and this supported growth in net revenue.
We also continued to reduce costs and instil operational efficiencies to offset input cost inflation. The combined improvements in price and cost efficiencies, together with a mix in volumes that were flat to slightly higher, enabled an EBIT margin of 10.9%, almost double pcp.
Outlook
Bansal advised that the company is expecting that its earnings will be weighted to the first half as per tradition. He said:
Boral's earnings have historically been weighted towards the first half. While FY23 was a recent exception to this trend, with the introduction of a new operating model and strategy in 1H23, we expect to return to a typical first half weighting in FY24.
Nevertheless, the CEO expects the company's EBIT to be stronger than previous guidance.
He now expects FY 2024 underlying EBIT to be in the range of $330 million to $350 million. This compares favourably to its previous guidance of $300 million to $330 million. It will also be a significant 42% to 51% increase on FY 2023's EBIT of $231.5 million.
Following today's gain, the Boral share price is now up 60% since this time last year.
