DAVY VIEW

The main takeaway from the Howdens’ trading update is that the group has confirmed full year pre-tax profit should be in line with current market expectations. This represents a solid outcome as operating conditions clearly remain challenging. This is evident in what is fairly modest underlying revenue growth in the core UK network since the start of fiscal H2. We suspect the stock will remain rangebound given the rich but deserved rating (current year P/E multiple of over 18.5x).