Recent Profit Margin Improvements Will Balance Softer Trends In Key Regions

Key Takeaways

• High expectations for demand growth and margin expansion may be difficult to meet if market, regulatory, or competitive conditions shift unfavorably.
  
• Risks around regulatory costs, disruptive new materials, and integration of acquisitions could undermine profitability and long-term growth assumptions.
  
• Holcim's focus on sustainable products, targeted acquisitions, decarbonization, and disciplined financial management positions it for resilient growth, margin strength, and industry leadership.

Catalysts

Provides building materials and solutions worldwide.

• Market participants appear to be pricing in aggressive and sustained demand growth expectations for Holcim, primarily driven by heavy infrastructure investments and ongoing urbanization, particularly in emerging markets like LatAm and Asia, as well as robust pipelines in Europe and Mexico. If these anticipated structural drivers are overestimated, future revenue growth may fall short of current high expectations.
  
• The valuation seems to reflect optimism that Holcim will maintain significant pricing power and margin expansion due to accelerating adoption of sustainable construction materials, including premium-priced green products like ECOPact and ECOPlanet. If regulatory changes or heightened competition lead to price pressures or if volume growth lags, the current net margin assumptions could prove overly optimistic.
  
• There appears to be an assumption that regulatory trends-especially the push for decarbonization-will remain a net tailwind for Holcim, supporting revenue growth and product mix improvement. However, stricter emissions benchmarks and phasing out of carbon allowances in Europe could lead to higher compliance and operating costs, eroding profitability and putting pressure on future earnings.
  
• Long-term capital allocation and large, ongoing M&A are assumed to be both seamless and highly accretive to earnings, with few execution risks priced in. If Holcim faces integration challenges, delays, or fails to realize anticipated synergies from recent and future acquisitions, this could negatively affect reported earnings and return on invested capital.
  
• The market may be underestimating the impact of alternative building materials (timber, modular, etc.) and slower population growth/urban densification in developed markets, which could cap the long-term baseline demand for cement and concrete, ultimately pressuring revenue growth and possibly resulting in lower-than-expected future EPS.

Holcim Future Earnings and Revenue Growth

Assumptions

• Analysts are assuming Holcim's revenue will decrease by 11.9% annually over the next 3 years.
• Analysts assume that profit margins will increase from 12.1% today to 13.4% in 3 years time.
• Analysts expect earnings to reach CHF 2.4 billion (and earnings per share of CHF 4.31) by about September 2028, down from CHF 3.2 billion today. However, there is a considerable amount of disagreement amongst the analysts with the most bullish expecting CHF2.7 billion in earnings, and the most bearish expecting CHF1.9 billion.
• In order for the above numbers to justify the analysts price target, the company would need to trade at a PE ratio of 17.4x on those 2028 earnings, up from 11.1x today. This future PE is lower than the current PE for the GB Basic Materials industry at 17.7x.
• Analysts expect the number of shares outstanding to grow by 0.22% per year for the next 3 years.
• To value all of this in today's terms, we will use a discount rate of 4.92%, as per the Simply Wall St company report.

Holcim Future Earnings Per Share Growth

Risks

• Holcim is successfully scaling up its sustainable product offerings (ECOPact, ECOPlanet, ECOCycle) and premium brands, with demonstrated margin expansion and evidence of strong customer demand and price premiums in major regions, which supports higher net margins and resilient revenue growth over time.
  
• The company is aggressively deploying capital towards value-accretive M&A, especially bolt-ons and high-value building solutions, with a strong deal pipeline and track record of integrating acquisitions, which is likely to augment both earnings growth and revenue diversification.
  
• Sustained investments and leadership in decarbonization, circular construction, and innovation (including net-zero cement initiatives and supplementary cementitious materials) position Holcim ahead of industry regulatory trends, enabling it to secure new revenue streams, access premium markets, and defend margins amid tightening climate rules.
  
• Holcim's strategy to leverage growth in global infrastructure, urban regeneration, and housing shortages-especially in high-growth markets like Latin America, Asia, Africa, and strong country-level projects in Europe-provides multi-year baseline demand, supporting organic sales and recurring EBIT growth.
  
• Prudent financial management, with a robust investment-grade balance sheet, low net debt leverage, and a commitment to progressive dividends and potential share buybacks, enhances the company's ability to generate attractive shareholder returns and cushion earnings through economic cycles.

Valuation

• The analysts have a consensus price target of CHF66.956 for Holcim based on their expectations of its future earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors. However, there is a degree of disagreement amongst analysts, with the most bullish reporting a price target of CHF79.3, and the most bearish reporting a price target of just CHF51.0.
• In order for you to agree with the analyst's consensus, you'd need to believe that by 2028, revenues will be CHF17.9 billion, earnings will come to CHF2.4 billion, and it would be trading on a PE ratio of 17.4x, assuming you use a discount rate of 4.9%.
• Given the current share price of CHF65.08, the analyst price target of CHF66.96 is 2.8% higher. The relatively low difference between the current share price and the analyst consensus price target indicates that they believe on average, the company is fairly priced.
• We always encourage you to reach your own conclusions though. So sense check these analyst numbers against your own assumptions and expectations based on your understanding of the business and what you believe is probable.