Al Root

Aggregate producer CRH reported rock-solid earnings and maintained full-year financial guidance. The U.S. construction business continues to hum along. That's good news. CRH shares are down, anyway. Investors remain nervous about the economy.

It's tough to build anything in the U.S. without running into CRH. It's one of the largest building-materials companies in the world, producing aggregates, the rocks used to make concrete, as well as cement, asphalt, and other construction-related products. It also builds roads and manages construction projects in the U.S. and Europe.

Monday evening, CRH announced a first-quarter loss per share of 15 cents on sales of $6.8 billion. Wall Street was looking for a loss of 7 cents per share on sales of $6.8 billion, according to FactSet.

The loss was wider than expected, but earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, topped estimates. What's more, the first quarter is seasonally weak in the construction business. It's cold and wet.

Considering that, CRH's results for the quarter look fine. What's more, the company maintained its full-year financial guidance for 2025 Ebitda of about $7.5 billion, in line with Wall Street estimates.

"Although the first quarter is typically the seasonally least significant period for our business, we are encouraged by the continued strength of underlying demand across our key markets," said CEO Jim Mintern in a news release. "Notwithstanding the current macroeconomic uncertainty, the outlook for our business remains positive, and we are pleased to reaffirm our financial guidance for 2025, leaving us well positioned for another year of growth, and value-creation ahead."

The macroeconomic uncertainty just hasn't shown up in results yet. There have been no project cancellations of note, according to the company. "The underlying backdrop across our key markets remains positive," said Chief Operating Officer Randy Lake on the company's earnings conference call. "Infrastructure, our largest end market, continues to be underpinned by state and federal funding....we also continue to see good levels of re-industrialization activity, particularly in manufacturing and data centers."

Data center building has been a boon for U.S. construction. Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon.com plan to dole out some $310 billion on capital spending in 2025, according to FactSet, up about 35% compared with 2024.

Still, investors look a little nervous. CRH shares were down 3.6% at $94.70 in early trading, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were off 0.5%.

Coming into Tuesday's trading, CRH shares were up about 6% year to date, about 10 percentage points better than the S&P 500.

Construction markets have held up well. Investors will keep looking for signs of weakness, anyway.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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May 06, 2025 11:30 ET (15:30 GMT)

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