Quikrete Industry Dashboard: NAICS 444 rises
Sales at retailers classified as NAICS 444–the broad industry category that includes prodealers, home centers and hardware stores–increased in May on both a monthly and annual basis.
The unadjusted May 2023 figure for the class was $51.5 billion, up from $50.6 billion in May of 2022.
That’s one of the highlights of the latest edition of the Quikrete Industry Dashboard, showcasing the major macroeconomic metrics shaping the hardware and building supply industry.
The latest statistics for the subset of hardware stores (NAICS 44413) are from the month of April, and show a similar year over increase. The April 2023 hardware store sales were at $3.41 billion, compared to $3.27 billion in April a year ago.
Elsewhere on the Dashboard, two ticker symbols are running away from the field. Builders FirstSource (BLD) is up 143 percent from one year ago. And compared to last month, Beacon (BECN) is up more than 27 percent.
Home Depot (HD) and Lowe’s (LOW) are both in positive territory for the month and the year, a group that also includes Masco (MAS), and Sherwin Williams (SHW).
Gas prices haven’t changed much from a month ago, but at $3.59 are way down from the $5-per-gallon-of-regular figure from a year ago.
Coming next: Government statistics for residential construction will be released June 20. The latest housing starts figures show slight increases in April for both total starts and single family starts. Total starts in April came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.401 million. Single-family starts in April were at a pace of 846,000.
Existing home sales will be reported by the National Association of Realtors on June 22. In April, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of existing home sales stood at 4.28 million, down from 4.44 million in March.
