What Happened?
Shares of water and fire protection solutions company Core & Main (NYSE:CNM) jumped 15.4% in the afternoon session after the company reported impressive third-quarter financial results. Core & Main exceeded analysts' revenue and EBITDA expectations. In addition, full-year revenue guidance was raised, and full-year EBITDA guidance came in ahead of expectations, which is a sign of a healthy business. Overall, we think this was a strong quarter.
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What The Market Is Telling Us
Core & Main’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 11 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Core & Main and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 3 months ago when the stock dropped 15% on the news that the company reported weak second-quarter earnings results. Its revenue unfortunately missed, and its EPS fell short of Wall Street's estimates. Management noted that gains from acquisitions were partially offset by "delays from wet weather conditions and comparably lower end-market volumes." Overall, this was a weaker quarter.
Core & Main is up 40.5% since the beginning of the year, but at $55.66 per share, it is still trading 10.3% below its 52-week high of $62.03 from May 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Core & Main’s shares at the IPO in July 2021 would now be looking at an investment worth $2,349.
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