Ferguson (FERG): a record number of tracked funds own it, and the stock is near its 12-month low

Ferguson distributes plumbing, HVAC and other building and industrial products in North America, to both residential and non-residential customers. At the end of June 2026, 11 of the 38 managers this site tracks held the stock — tying the record in a series that starts in 2021 — and 7 of them added shares in the second quarter. The share price went the other way: from a twelve-month high of $267.71 on April 30, 2026 to $215.06 on October 7, down 19.7% while the S&P 500 gained 8.2%. Over twelve months the stock fell 6.9%, against a 16.2% rise for the index.

A new fiscal year

Ferguson’s numbers need one caution. Until July 2025 its fiscal year ran from August to July; it then reported a five-month transition period (August to December 2025) and has used the calendar year since 2026. Mixing the old fiscal years, the transition and the calendar years on one chart produces jumps that never happened. The company also moved its holding company to the United States in August 2024, exchanging each Ferguson plc share for one share of Ferguson Enterprises, and on July 20, 2026 it left the London Stock Exchange; it now trades only on the NYSE.

What the business did

Net income rose 21.5% in calendar 2025, helped by a lower tax bill: income tax fell from $695 million to $578 million, and pre-tax income rose 10.1%, from $2.35 billion to $2.58 billion. In the second quarter of 2026, sales grew 4.6% to $8.8 billion and earnings per share 6.9% to $3.43. The company says residential markets, about half of revenue, “remained subdued” (+2% in the quarter), while non-residential sales rose 8%. It raised its 2026 sales guidance to “mid-single digit growth,” not counting the acquisition below, and bought back $202 million of stock in the quarter after $0.9 billion in 2025.

On July 13, 2026, Ferguson agreed to buy FWI Holdings (FloWorks), an industrial distributor with about $1 billion of 2025 revenue, for about $1.6 billion in cash. It arranged a bridge loan of up to $700 million and sold $1.2 billion of notes in August. The deal was expected to close in the third quarter; no filing through October 7 reports that it has.

The stock’s slide

The largest one-day drop in twelve months, −8.0% on December 9, 2025, came on the day Ferguson reported results for August to October. May 2026 was the worst month, −15.6%, but without a single large day: the biggest fall was −3.5% on May 15, the ex-dividend date, and the stock fell 3.1% on May 5, the day of first-quarter results. The filings do not explain the decline. The stock also fell 3.7% on October 7 itself, with no SEC filing that day, and closed just above its twelve-month low of $214.26 (September 17).

Who held it at the end of June

The largest holder is Seth Klarman’s Baupost, which bought in late 2024 and added slightly. Daniel Sundheim’s D1 first appeared in the first quarter of 2026 and nearly quadrupled its stake in the second; John Armitage’s Egerton added 59%. Ken Griffin’s Citadel, the only one that has held the stock since 2021, cut 42.5%. A 13F does not say on which day of the quarter shares were bought, and the values are at the June 30 price of $237.33; at the October 7 price they were worth 9.4% less — Baupost’s stake about $312 million.

Insiders

No executive or director bought Ferguson shares on the open market in the twelve months to October 7, 2026. Nine executives sold $8.05 million in 12 sales, none under a 10b5-1 plan, and the related Form 144 notices say the shares came from vesting restricted stock. Eleven of the 12 sales were made on October 13–16, 2025, right after shares vested; the largest was by chief executive Kevin Murphy, $2.06 million on October 13, 2025. Outside directors sold nothing.

Ferguson has paid a quarterly dividend since December 2022 (before that, twice a year) and has raised it every year since: $0.75, $0.79, $0.83 and, from January 2026, $0.89. Daily prices and every filing are on the Ferguson page. Not investment advice.