# Fletcher Building (FBU.AU)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/FBU.AU

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:41:00.224Z. Financial observations: FY1997–FY2026.

Listing currency: AUD. Reporting currency: NZD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: AUD 2.64 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 5 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- more than 2 net loss years

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 5

- Years with a net loss: 4

- Operating margin variation: 0.64×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: 0.05×

- FY2018: -0.01×

- FY2019: 0.06×

- FY2020: 0.02×

- FY2021: 0.08×

- FY2022: 0.09×

- FY2023: 0.10×

- FY2024: 0.06×

- FY2025: 0.00×

- FY2026: 0.07×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: 6.8%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: 0.1%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 0.7 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 27.7%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 27.0%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 4.1%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -1.6%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: 7.2%

- FY2018: -0.9%

- FY2019: 10.8%

- FY2020: 2.3%

- FY2021: 9.7%

- FY2022: 9.9%

- FY2023: 9.2%

- FY2024: 6.4%

- FY2025: 0.1%

- FY2026: 6.3%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- incremental invested capital return below threshold

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: -5.81×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: NZD -1.4B

- Net income, five-year total: NZD 249M

- Return on incremental invested capital: -69.1%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: -0.7 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: -5.5 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 15.9%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2022: -0.04×

- FY2023: -0.73×

- FY2024: 2.57×

- FY2025: 1.63×

- FY2026: 0.04×

### management: fail

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2017 to 2026 (9 years)

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks leaned toward cheaper years (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: 7.2% vs 6.3%

- Per-share earnings: 0.14 to -0.24 (three-year endpoint medians)

- per-share value declined or ends nonpositive

- five-year and ten-year diluted share growth both above threshold

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: 4.3%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 4.8%

- Market cap gain: NZD -2.5B

- Cumulative retained earnings: NZD -1.1B

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 4.3%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 4.8%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2017

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2026

- Per-share value change: NZD -0.38

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: NZD 0.14

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: NZD -0.24

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): 0.05

- Average buyback yield: 2.8%

- Buyback history: 9 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- Acquisition spending: NZD 197M

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: NZD 426M

- ROIC, first three-year median: 7.2%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 6.3%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: NZD 0.14

- FY2018: NZD -0.20

- FY2019: NZD 0.18

- FY2020: NZD -0.22

- FY2021: NZD 0.35

- FY2022: NZD 0.50

- FY2023: NZD 0.30

- FY2024: NZD -0.24

- FY2025: NZD -0.39

- FY2026: NZD 0.21

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -6.7%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.17×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 0.0%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 3.20×

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.17×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -1.9%

- FY2018: -6.9%

- FY2019: 0.1%

- FY2020: -6.9%

- FY2021: -7.2%

- FY2022: -1.9%

- FY2023: -1.7%

- FY2024: -9.2%

- FY2025: -11.6%

- FY2026: -6.7%

## Holders

## Price story

Down 61% since Dec 2021 · sales -14.4%

Story as of 2026-10-16T10:00:11.766Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales -14.4%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2017: NZD 9.4B 

- FY2018: NZD 8.3B 

- FY2019: NZD 8.3B 

- FY2020: NZD 7.3B 

- FY2021: NZD 8.1B 

- FY2022: NZD 8.5B 

- FY2023: NZD 7.7B 

- FY2024: NZD 7.7B 

- FY2025: NZD 7.0B 

- FY2026: NZD 6.0B 

### Gross margin · FY2026

gross margin 27%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2017: 22.1% 

- FY2018: 20.5% 

- FY2019: 27.5% 

- FY2020: 24.8% 

- FY2021: 28.8% 

- FY2022: 29.5% 

- FY2023: 31.2% 

- FY2024: 28.1% 

- FY2025: 27.9% 

- FY2026: 27.0% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in building materials; annual sales are NZD 6 billion.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:41:00.224Z); FY2026: revenue 5989314998; grossProfit 1616735345; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); FBU.AU: Fletcher Building Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and distributes building products in New Zealand, Australia, and internationally. It operates through Light Building Products; Heavy Building Materials; Distribution; and Residential and Development segments. The company manufactures, distributes, and markets light building products, including plasterboard, laminates and panels, insulation, and plastic and concrete piping, as well as steel products, drywall systems, and associated products and services used in residential, industrial, and commercial markets. It is also involved in extraction, manufacture, and supply of aggregates; products cement, ready-mix concrete, and concrete products, as well as bagged and bulk cement, pre-cast and concrete pipes, long run roofing, cladding, architectural tray, solar roofing, purlin and flooring, reinforcing steel and reinforcing mesh, wire, pre-painted steel, aluminium roofing, rainwater roller doors, wall sheeting, and speciality products; provision of bulk transportation solutions and technical support services; and roll-forming steel business. In addition, the company distributes building and plumbing products. Further, it engages in the building and sale of residential homes and apartments; and development and sale of commercial and residential land. The company offers its products under the Altus, Comfortech Building Performance Solutions, Fletcher Insulation, Fletcher Wood, Iplex Pipelines, Laminex, Oliveri Solutions, Winstone Wallboards, Golden Bay, Humes, Winstone Aggregates, Dimond Roofing, Dimond Structural, Easysteel, Firth, Fletcher Reinforcing, Fletcher Wire Products, ColorCote, Stramit, Mico, PlaceMakers, Fletcher Living, and Vivid Living names. Fletcher Building Limited was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 27% to 28.1% during 2024–26; it earns 6.8% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:41:00.224Z); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 28.1%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:41:00.224Z); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 27.9%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:41:00.224Z); FY2026: grossProfit / revenue = 27%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:41:00.224Z); 10-year return on capital observations [[2017,0.07231981981981982],[2018,-0.009422529426381793],[2019,0.1078365522469549],[2020,0.023092307692307693],[2021,0.0971707399094667],[2022,0.09871010118036504],[2023,0.0916585365112748],[2024,0.064345980526494],[2025,0.000972393177422191],[2026,0.06279025979287259]]; median 0.06833290017315691. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 10 of 10 years; bought back NZD 55 million of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:41:00.224Z); FY2017: growth capex 97065839.05466467; upkeep 221934160.94533533; owner earnings 75065839.05466467. Growth capex / owner earnings = 1.2930760553276317.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:41:00.224Z); FY2019: growth capex 9348888.94413054; upkeep 338651111.05586946; owner earnings 24348888.94413054. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.38395546365922173.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:41:00.224Z); FY2026: growth capex 0; upkeep 287774894; owner earnings 8799905. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:41:00.224Z); Dividend observations: [[2017,260000000],[2018,123000000],[2019,75000000],[2020,137000000],[2021,130000000],[2022,292000000],[2023,311000000],[2024,124000000],[2025,5000000],[2026,21000000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:41:00.224Z); FY2026: cash repurchases 54957010 NZD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 2.2% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); FBU.AU SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 2.183 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price is 0.6 times annual sales.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:41:00.224Z); Closing price 2.64 AUD; reporting-to-trading FX 0.8124078517533463; FY2026 annual sales per share 5.48811709481014; price multiple 0.5921155217055415. FY2026 cash earnings/share 0.008063511282898336. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (AUD per share)

- 2016-10: AUD 9.27 per share

- 2016-11: AUD 9.48 per share

- 2016-12: AUD 9.87 per share

- 2017-01: AUD 9.65 per share

- 2017-02: AUD 8.60 per share

- 2017-03: AUD 7.21 per share

- 2017-04: AUD 7.48 per share

- 2017-05: AUD 6.83 per share

- 2017-06: AUD 7.27 per share

- 2017-07: AUD 7.16 per share

- 2017-08: AUD 7.14 per share

- 2017-09: AUD 7.05 per share

- 2017-10: AUD 6.20 per share

- 2017-11: AUD 5.92 per share

- 2017-12: AUD 6.59 per share

- 2018-01: AUD 6.79 per share

- 2018-02: AUD 5.77 per share

- 2018-03: AUD 5.47 per share

- 2018-04: AUD 5.87 per share

- 2018-05: AUD 6.14 per share

- 2018-06: AUD 6.37 per share

- 2018-07: AUD 6.47 per share

- 2018-08: AUD 5.84 per share

- 2018-09: AUD 5.98 per share

- 2018-10: AUD 5.57 per share

- 2018-11: AUD 4.47 per share

- 2018-12: AUD 4.65 per share

- 2019-01: AUD 4.74 per share

- 2019-02: AUD 4.73 per share

- 2019-03: AUD 4.69 per share

- 2019-04: AUD 4.91 per share

- 2019-05: AUD 4.93 per share

- 2019-06: AUD 4.66 per share

- 2019-07: AUD 4.73 per share

- 2019-08: AUD 4.16 per share

- 2019-09: AUD 4.75 per share

- 2019-10: AUD 4.25 per share

- 2019-11: AUD 4.93 per share

- 2019-12: AUD 4.90 per share

- 2020-01: AUD 5.35 per share

- 2020-02: AUD 5.01 per share

- 2020-03: AUD 3.24 per share

- 2020-04: AUD 3.48 per share

- 2020-05: AUD 3.37 per share

- 2020-06: AUD 3.45 per share

- 2020-07: AUD 3.13 per share

- 2020-08: AUD 3.26 per share

- 2020-09: AUD 3.56 per share

- 2020-10: AUD 3.87 per share

- 2020-11: AUD 5.40 per share

- 2020-12: AUD 5.44 per share

- 2021-01: AUD 5.77 per share

- 2021-02: AUD 6.04 per share

- 2021-03: AUD 6.45 per share

- 2021-04: AUD 6.76 per share

- 2021-05: AUD 6.99 per share

- 2021-06: AUD 7.04 per share

- 2021-07: AUD 7.18 per share

- 2021-08: AUD 7.18 per share

- 2021-09: AUD 6.86 per share

- 2021-10: AUD 6.75 per share

- 2021-11: AUD 6.48 per share

- 2021-12: AUD 6.78 per share

- 2022-01: AUD 5.95 per share

- 2022-02: AUD 6.29 per share

- 2022-03: AUD 5.87 per share

- 2022-04: AUD 5.65 per share

- 2022-05: AUD 4.93 per share

- 2022-06: AUD 4.50 per share

- 2022-07: AUD 4.64 per share

- 2022-08: AUD 5.00 per share

- 2022-09: AUD 4.24 per share

- 2022-10: AUD 4.64 per share

- 2022-11: AUD 4.65 per share

- 2022-12: AUD 4.45 per share

- 2023-01: AUD 4.71 per share

- 2023-02: AUD 4.31 per share

- 2023-03: AUD 4.07 per share

- 2023-04: AUD 4.21 per share

- 2023-05: AUD 4.64 per share

- 2023-06: AUD 5.00 per share

- 2023-07: AUD 5.16 per share

- 2023-08: AUD 4.42 per share

- 2023-09: AUD 4.33 per share

- 2023-10: AUD 4.00 per share

- 2023-11: AUD 4.29 per share

- 2023-12: AUD 4.41 per share

- 2024-01: AUD 4.23 per share

- 2024-02: AUD 3.87 per share

- 2024-03: AUD 3.81 per share

- 2024-04: AUD 3.47 per share

- 2024-05: AUD 2.84 per share

- 2024-06: AUD 2.69 per share

- 2024-07: AUD 2.89 per share

- 2024-08: AUD 2.83 per share

- 2024-09: AUD 2.65 per share

- 2024-10: AUD 2.72 per share

- 2024-11: AUD 2.84 per share

- 2024-12: AUD 2.55 per share

- 2025-01: AUD 2.61 per share

- 2025-02: AUD 3.04 per share

- 2025-03: AUD 2.98 per share

- 2025-04: AUD 2.82 per share

- 2025-05: AUD 2.93 per share

- 2025-06: AUD 2.70 per share

- 2025-07: AUD 2.79 per share

- 2025-08: AUD 2.88 per share

- 2025-09: AUD 2.92 per share

- 2025-10: AUD 2.86 per share

- 2025-11: AUD 2.93 per share

- 2025-12: AUD 3.12 per share

- 2026-01: AUD 3.25 per share

- 2026-02: AUD 2.95 per share

- 2026-03: AUD 2.47 per share

- 2026-04: AUD 2.29 per share

- 2026-05: AUD 2.62 per share

- 2026-06: AUD 2.77 per share

- 2026-07: AUD 3.05 per share

- 2026-08: AUD 3.30 per share

- 2026-09: AUD 2.84 per share

- 2026-10: AUD 2.73 per share

## Annual estimated value (AUD per share)

- FY2017: low AUD 3.67 per share, central AUD 4.17 per share, high AUD 4.84 per share

- FY2018: low AUD 2.70 per share, central AUD 3.02 per share, high AUD 3.44 per share

- FY2019: low AUD 1.73 per share, central AUD 1.82 per share, high AUD 1.94 per share

- FY2020: low AUD 1.08 per share, central AUD 1.11 per share, high AUD 1.15 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.