Reading the tea leaves: did Fletcher upgrade or downgrade?

Steel prices have been rising much faster than volumes. (Image: iStock)

Fri, 13 May 2022

Did Fletcher Building upgrade its earnings guidance last week? Or did it downgrade?Since the building products company spoke at a Macquarie event on May 3, Fletcher shares have dropped as much as 6%, so that suggests it downgraded expectations.What the slides said was that it expected annual earnings before interest and tax (ebit) to come in at about $750 million, which is exactly the same guidance it gave in February when it reported first-half ebit of $332m.But Forsyth Barr's co-head of markets, Darren Manning, said in a note to instituti...

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