The Cavan-headquartered company, with a market capitalisation of €13bn, released first-half results on Friday.
It said it now expects to deliver a full-year trading profit of €950m, which Davy Stockbrokers said points to a 3.5pc reduction in the broker’s expectations.
Kingspan, whose chief executive is Gene Murtagh, said that revenue in the first half of the year rose 8pc to €4.5bn. Its trading profit was 5pc higher, at €443m.
“This was a record revenue and trading profit performance, despite the persistently unforgiving economic backdrop that prevails almost everywhere we operate,” noted the group.
It said that the first half of the year was characterised by a slow start, with activity improving “somewhat” as the year progressed.
“Conditions are relatively stable at present, with Western Europe solid for the most part, and Central and Eastern Europe has seen some improvement recently,” it added. “The US is more tentative than it has been, and in contrast to that LATAM is pushing ahead at an encouraging pace.”
Kingspan noted that its insulated building envelopes division continues to benefit from structural growth. Its advanced building systems unit is capitalising on growth from the tech sector, it said.
“As we move into the second half of the year the group’s backlog is higher overall than at the same point last year which should support the second half,” according to the group. “The exchange rate environment has moved significantly since the turn of the year, a likely factor in earnings translation in the second half.”
It said that it can “reasonably expect” to deliver a full-year trading profit of approximately €950m, which would be 5pc higher than in 2024.
Davy Stockbrokers said the figure would be lower than anticipated by analysts, however.
“Our current full year forecast is for trading profit of €985m, consistent with the latest Visible Alpha consensus estimate of €986m,” it pointed out. “Hence we will have to lower our full-year forecast by around €35m (3.5pc).”
The first-half trading profit was also lower than the €455m it had anticipated.
Davy said its lower full-year forecast reflects that first-half performance combined with continuing difficult trading conditions and a greater than expected foreign exchange translation headwind.
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