Why Is Ferguson Stock Going Up?
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Ferguson Enterprises (FERG) stock rose 11.2% on Monday, November 9, 2026, while the S&P 500 gained 2.3%. The gain came the day Ferguson reported its third-quarter results and raised its full-year sales forecast. That quarter ended September 30, 2026. So how did the quarter compare with what analysts expected?
Ferguson Beat Sales Estimates And Raised Guidance
Ferguson came in ahead of analysts on sales. Total sales for the quarter were $9 billion, against the $8.74 billion analysts had expected. Management reported diluted earnings per share of $3.43. Analysts had forecast adjusted earnings per share of $3.31, a different measure, so the two figures do not compare directly.
Growth was strongest outside housing. In the U.S. business, non-residential sales rose 15% in the quarter and residential sales 6%, and management said its backlog remains strong and is growing. Large capital projects make up a mid- to high single-digit percentage of revenue, management said, and roughly half of that is data center work.
Management lifted its 2026 sales growth forecast to about 7%, up from an earlier projection of mid-single-digit growth. The company pointed to the year so far and the addition of FloWorks, which Ferguson closed on August 31 and which adds specialized valves, automation and flow control solutions. Not every line improved: gross margin fell 40 basis points from a year earlier to 30.9%, a decline management said it had expected.
Did Ferguson Rise More Than Other Distributors?
Yes, by a wide margin. All five companies on the Trefis peer list for Ferguson gained during the session, ranging from a 0.7% rise for W.W. Grainger to 4.9% for Applied Industrial Technologies. The Industrials sector fund XLI advanced 3.8%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 2.7%.
While the peer group and the broader market rose that Monday, Ferguson advanced much further than either. Its own gain was more than twice the largest of those peer increases.
Where Does Ferguson Stock Stand Now?
No trading session in the prior year produced a rise this large for Ferguson. Before Monday, its biggest one-day gain was 6.7% on August 3, 2026. The Monday advance followed a 5.2% fall on Thursday, November 5.
Monday’s close of $259.93 left the stock below its 52-week closing high of $267.71, set on April 30, 2026. The 52-week closing low was $214.26 on September 17. Most of the climb since then occurred in the past month, a period when the stock returned 18.1% against a 3.3% fall for the S&P 500. Over twelve months, however, Ferguson returned 7.2%, trailing the 13.7% return of the S&P 500.
Ferguson is expected to report its fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 results in February 2027. Total sales growth in that quarter, the first to include a full three months of FloWorks, is the figure to watch.
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