Core & Main Reaffirms Fiscal 2026 Outlook Following Second-Quarter Beat

12:53 PM EDT, 09/09/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Core & Main (CNM) maintained its full-year outlook after reporting better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results, sending the company's shares lower Wednesday. The water, sewer and fire protection product distributor continues to expect fiscal 2026 net sales between $7.80 billion and $7.90 billion. The current consensus on FactSet is for $7.84 billion. The company projects full-year adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization at $950 million to $980 million, also unchanged from its prior guidance. Wall Street is looking for $970.3 million. For the three months through Aug. 2, adjusted earnings rose to $0.94 a share from $0.87 a year earlier, topping the Street's views of $0.92. Net sales increased 2.5% to $2.15 billion, driven by higher volume and selling prices for fire protection products, as well as gains in the pipes, valves and fittings business due to acquisitions. Analysts expected sales of $2.14 billion. The company's shares were down 3.6% in afternoon trade, bringing its year-to-date losses to 18%. "Municipal demand remained a key source of strength, supported by a broad range of activity across water and wastewater infrastructure," Core & Main Chief Financial Officer Robyn Bradbury said on an earnings conference call, according to a FactSet transcript. "Within nonresidential, activity was led by data center construction, offset by ongoing softness in light commercial and retail." Residential lot development continued to be "challenged" in the quarter as projected, especially in markets that benefited from robust development activity in 2025, Chief Executive Mark Witkowski said during the call. "While affordability concerns and higher interest rates continue to influence near-term activity, we expect comparisons to become considerably more favorable in the back half of the year." Selling, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of net sales were 14% for the quarter, compared with 14.4% a year earlier. The company attributed the improvement mainly to the benefits of recent cost actions and lower variable compensation costs. "(Core & Main) continues to make some SG&A cost work, but still has limited organic growth despite capital projects," Truist Securities said in a note. "Regardless, the stock has been particularly weak the last several months with soft (merger and acquisition) activity and end market weakness." Last month, plumbing supplies distributor Ferguson Enterprises (FERG) logged higher-than-expected second-quarter results and forecast full-year sales to grow at the top end of its prior outlook range. Price: 42.37, Change: -1.69, Percent Change: -3.84