By Joe Hoppe 



  Ferguson PLC on Tuesday reported a 4.8% fall in pretax profit for fiscal 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, declared Bill Brundage the new chief financial officer, and declared a dividend. 


  The supplier of plumbing and heating products made a pretax profit of $1.26 billion for the year ended July 31 compared with $1.32 billion for fiscal 2019. The company attributed the fall to the effects of the pandemic. 


  Revenue was $21.82 billion compared with $22.01 billion in 2019. 


  Trading profit--one of the company's preferred metrics which excludes exceptional and other one-off items--was $1.60 billion compared with $1.53 billion the year before. 


  The board reinstated a dividend of 208.2 cents a share, flat on 2019, given its strong financial position and good prospects. 


  The company said it has appointed Bill Brundage as its new CFO, effective from Nov. 1. Mr. Brundage is currently CFO of Ferguson Enterprises, a role he has held since March 2017. 


  Ferguson said the fundamental aspects of its business model remained attractive despite caution in its outlook for fiscal 2021 as a whole, given the uncertain nature of the virus. Since the start of the new year, low single digit revenue growth has been generated in the U.S. in flat markets overall, Ferguson said. 


  Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com