West Fraser Timber reports Q4 EPS (80c) vs. ($1.03) in Q3

Reports Q4 revenue $1.41B, consensus $1.41B. “The fourth quarter of 2024 saw continued resiliency in our NA Engineered Wood Products business, where supply and demand fundamentals remained relatively well balanced on the back of solid new home construction demand. We also realized modest improvement in our Lumber segment this quarter as we monetized some of the benefits of our portfolio optimization strategy that allowed us to migrate more production from higher cost to lower cost mills within our platform. In Europe and the U.K., we continued to experience somewhat challenging markets as that region appears to be undergoing a protracted recovery,” said Sean McLaren, CEO. “Relatively high mortgage rates remain an affordability challenge for consumers and housing markets, impacting demand for our wood building products. Further, potential for the U.S. administration to impose broad-based tariffs on Canadian exports adds another element of demand uncertainty for the products we ship to the U.S. from Canada. However, while we cannot control the threat of such tariffs, we can be proactive, creating a stronger organization with a continued focus on improving the cost position across our mill portfolio and investing capital to modernize mills where it makes sense. You should also expect West Fraser to continue to return excess capital to shareholders when prudent, and maintain a strong balance sheet that will provide us with the financial flexibility to take advantage of opportunities that fit our long-term strategy.”