(Alliance News) - Ferguson PLC on Tuesday reported a decline in profit amid lower sales but remained upbeat for the future.
The Wokingham, England-based heating and plumbing products distributor said pretax profit declined 13% to USD1.12 billion in the half-year ended January 31, from USD1.29 billion a year prior.
Diluted earnings per share fell 11% to USD4.12 from USD4.64.
Net sales contracted 2.5% to USD14.38 billion from USD14.76 billion.
Chief Executive Officer Kevin Murphy said: "Our associates continued to execute well during our seasonally lightest quarter. While sales were slightly lower than the prior year, organic performance improved from the first quarter. Current open orders and sales per day trends support our expectation of improvement through the balance of the fiscal year against easing comparables. We are appropriately managing costs as we prepare for our seasonally stronger second half."
Despite the fall in profit and revenue, Ferguson declared a quarterly dividend of 79 US cents, up 5.3% from 75 cents a year prior.
Looking ahead to the current financial year ending July 31, Ferguson expects net sales to be broadly flat compared to prior year's USD29.73 billion.
Further, it anticipates the net interest expense to increase by at least 3.3% to between USD190 million and UD210 million from USD184 million a year before.
CEO Murphy said: "We are well positioned to leverage emerging multi-year structural tailwinds in non-residential construction and opportunities to further support the residential trade professional."
Ferguson shares fell 5.6% to 15,995.00 pence each on Tuesday afternoon in London.
By Tom Budszus, Alliance News slot editor
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Ferguson (FERG)