CRH Reports 12% Sales Growth For FY21, Improved Margins

CRH PLC CRH reported FY21 sales growth of 12.3% year-over-year to $30.98 billion, +8% on an organic basis.
Sales by segments: Americas Materials $12.41 billion (+10.1% Y/Y), Europe Materials $10.58 billion (+15.7% Y/Y), and Building Products $7.99 billion (+11.4% Y/Y).
The gross margin expanded by 64 bps to 33.9%. Operating profit increased by 58.4% Y/Y to $3.59 billion, and margin expanded by 337 bps to 11.6%.
EPS improved to $3.26 from $1.41 a year ago.
EBITDA improved 15.6% Y/Y to $5.35 billion, and margin expanded by 50 bps to 17.3%.
Return on Net Assets (RONA) improved 220 bps to 12.3% in FY21.
CRH generated cash from operating activities of $4.21 billion, compared to $3.94 billion last year. It held cash and cash equivalents of $5.78 billion as of December 31, 2021.
The company repurchased 17.8 million ordinary shares for a total consideration of $0.9 billion in FY21.
CRH ended the year with net debt of $6.3 billion (2020: $5.9 billion), and net debt to EBITDA was 1.2x (2020: 1.3x).
The company expects the underlying demand and pricing backdrop to remain favorable in 2022, albeit against an inflationary input cost environment and continued supply chain challenges.
Price Action: CRH shares are trading lower by 0.36% at $44.14 during the premarket session on Thursday.

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