LPX

Louisiana-Pacific is a building-products maker straddling two very different businesses: a growing, branded engineered-wood Siding franchise and a commodity oriented-strand-board (OSB) segment. FY2025 was a cyclical down year — revenue fell 7.9% to $2.71B, gross profit dropped 29.2%, operating income fell 60.6% to $209M, and net income collapsed 65.2% to $146M ($2.08 diluted EPS, -64.7%). The swing is characteristic of OSB's commodity volatility: the five-year history runs from $1.38B net income (FY2021 OSB super-cycle) down to $178M (FY2023), back to $420M (FY2024) and now $146M. Margins compressed to a 21.8% gross and 7.7% operating margin.

What keeps this a quality name despite the earnings drop is the balance sheet and the strategic mix shift. Liabilities/equity is just 0.52x with only $348M of long-term debt and $292M of cash, giving LPX the financial strength to invest through the cycle. Capex rose 59.0% to $291M — largely funding Siding capacity expansion, the higher-margin, less-cyclical growth engine that is steadily reducing reliance on commodity OSB. The company still returned capital (a growing $78M dividend, +5.4%, plus $61M of buybacks) while reinvesting.