The London-listed company's residential operations sales have been recovering with housing activity picking up in the U.S. market, which accounts for 97% of the company's underlying trading profit, according to its website.

The company, however, said in a statement its commercial business faced challenges, with restricted municipal funding and as industrial clients were dealing tough environment for manufacturing during the pandemic.

"Since the start of the second quarter, Ferguson has continued to generate low single-digit revenue growth in broadly flat markets, although we remain cautious on the outlook for the year as a whole, considering current pandemic trends," Chief Executive Officer Kevin Murphy said.

The FTSE-100 company reiterated that the Board was assessing other separation options in parallel with progress towards the demerger to facilitate the exit of its Wolseley UK business.

The company's underlying trading profit rose to $486 million for the three months ended Oct. 31 from $433 million it reported a year ago.

Its revenue rose 3.1% to $5.37 billion in the first quarter.

(Reporting by Shanima A in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)