By Sabela Ojea

Ferguson PLC said Tuesday that its performance for the first quarter of fiscal 2021 was marked by a rise in trading profit and revenue, and it noted that it has continued to generate low single-digit revenue growth in broadly flat markets since the start of the second quarter.

The plumbing-and-heating products distributor posted a trading profit--one of the company's preferred metrics which excludes exceptional and other one-off items--for the three months ended Oct. 31 of $504 million, up from $451 million for the year-earlier period.

Underlying trading profit increased to $486 million from $433 million for the same period a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $5.37 billion from $5.21 billion, the FTSE 100-listed company added.

In Ferguson's core U.S. business, revenue came to $5.05 billion, up from $4.89 billion. Ferguson said its Canadian unit's revenue rose to $322 million from $315 million. The U.K. unit's revenue--from non-ongoing operations--grew to $569 million from $541 million.

"The business is in very good shape and we are well prepared should there be any further market related disruption and overall management's expectations for fiscal 2021 are unchanged," Chief Executive Kevin Murphy said.

Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

12-08-20 0241ET