Cracking the US market has the power to turbo-charge returns — FTSE 100 constituent Ferguson is a case in point. But the plumbing and heating products specialist, which now makes almost all its money Stateside, doesn’t have the market valuation to match.
That’s despite rising housebuilding activity, a booming home repairs, maintenance and improvement market and a bounceback in commercial construction activity that have accelerated revenue growth. Organic sales were 24.5 per cent higher in the first quarter, up from 23.6 per cent in the prior three months and ahead of the 20 per cent forecast by analysts. That rate of growth is expected to continue during the current quarter, so management’s full-year expectations have increased despite the fact that gains should slow later this
