JHXJames Hardie Industries plc
Is it safe?
Nothing alarming, nothing pristine: insiders quiet, comfortable debt (A), and big price swings.
Insiders were net sellers (-$28.3M, 90 days to Oct 8, 2026), selling is often routine.
Investment-grade balance sheet. A rule of thumb on leverage, not a credit rating.
Large price swings, high volatility. Worst drawdown -60% · now 19% below its 52-week high.
Where this answer is blind. Altman sits structurally low for utilities and pipelines; Beneish runs high for fast growers, since sales growth alone lifts it; banks and REITs are excluded.
Can JHX take a bad year?
James Hardie Industries plc carries $4.27B of net debt at 4.53× EBITDA: a heavy load to carry through a bad year.
Net debt · as at FY2026 · over four years of earnings before interest, tax and depreciation, heavy
- Net debt / EBITDA
- 4.53×
Net debt / EBITDA · 0.64× a year ago · the load is going up
- Interest cover
- 1.94×
Interest cover · operating profit barely covers the interest bill
- Annualised volatility
- 52%
Annualised volatility · roughly twice as jumpy as the market
Details›
- Total debtFY2026
- $4.54B
- Cash and short-term investments
- $269M
- Net debt
- $4.27B
- EBITDA, trailing twelve months
- $941M
- Operating profit, trailing twelve months
- $448M
- Debt / equity
- 0.71×
- Total debt / EBITDA
- 4.82×
- Annualised volatilitytwo years of daily moves
- 52%
- Worst drawdown on file
- −60%
- Below its 52-week high
- 19%
Balance sheet from SEC filings; drawdown and volatility from end-of-day closes; Altman Z from the filed statements.