James Hardie Industries PLC (JHX) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Materials / Mining & Chemicals · as of Sep 24, 2026
James Hardie Industries PLC (JHX)
A forensic read on James Hardie Industries PLC built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
6
Forensic signals
103.4
P / E (ttm)
1.6%
ROE
$15.6B
Market cap
2.07%
Dividend yield
24.7%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
James Hardie Industries PLC earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.2, placing it in the Safe zone. 6 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+118.9%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +118.9% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash. An accrual is a claim that still has to be collected or written down, so the gap resolves in a later period whichever way it goes. The build is led by inventory up +83% against +31% in cost of sales and PP&E up +42% against revenue +25%. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 7% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 118.9%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.
2.4%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.4% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2026 from 14% — below the ~8% cost of capital we hold this sector to. If that gap persists through the cycle, incremental reinvestment reduces rather than creates value per share. The capital base behind it grew +235% across FY2023–FY2026, from $3.7B to $12.3B, while the return fell 11.9 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 14% the older base was already earning.
+7.0%/yr
FY2023–FY2026
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +22% over the last 3 years to FY2026 (+7.0%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~7.0% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~18%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$4.84B
Revenue Growth YoY+24.7%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+8.6%
Net Margin2.2%
Free Cash Flow$205.9M
Return on Equity1.6%
Debt / Equity0.71x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from James Hardie Industries PLC's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Sep 24, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
0.8% of rev
FY2026
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.8% of revenue and 18% of free cash flow in FY2026 — about $0.07 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 7.7% a year and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
stopped
FY2025→FY2026
Shareholder returns — halted.Capital returns have STOPPED — $150M of buybacks + dividends in FY2025, but ~$0 in FY2026. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.
suspended
FY2023→FY2025
Dividend — suspended.The dividend has been SUSPENDED — $130M paid in FY2023, then $0 in FY2025. A suspension is a major signal the board is conserving cash; the prior payment history doesn't offset it.