KB Home (KBH) Shares Gap Up After Earnings Beat

Shares of KB Home (NYSE:KBH) gapped up prior to trading on Friday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $18.79, but opened at $19.32. KB Home shares last traded at $19.61, with a volume of 5,026,175 shares.

The construction company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.02. KB Home had a return on equity of 6.35% and a net margin of 2.94%. The business earned $818.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $797.78 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.14 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 4th will be given a dividend of $0.025 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 2nd. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. KB Home’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.85%.

KBH has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial, Inc. raised shares of KB Home from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 13th. Deutsche Bank AG lifted their price target on shares of KB Home from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $20.00 price target on shares of KB Home in a research note on Friday, March 24th. JMP Securities downgraded shares of KB Home from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 27th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Finally, Citigroup Inc boosted their price objective on shares of KB Home from $17.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 27th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.47.

In other KB Home news, SVP Thomas F. Norton sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.81, for a total value of $891,450.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 106,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,108,358.49. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 8.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hartwell J M Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in KB Home during the first quarter valued at approximately $209,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its stake in KB Home by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 12,316 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $195,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Gideon Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in KB Home during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $230,000. USA Financial Portformulas Corp acquired a new stake in KB Home during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $259,000. Finally, Tudor Investment Corp Et Al acquired a new stake in KB Home during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $277,000. 95.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

The company’s 50 day moving average is $19.49 and its 200-day moving average is $16.92. The firm has a market cap of $1.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.92 and a beta of 1.93.

TRADEMARK VIOLATION NOTICE: This report was originally reported by Transcript Daily and is the sole property of of Transcript Daily. If you are reading this report on another domain, it was illegally stolen and republished in violation of US & international trademark and copyright legislation. The correct version of this report can be viewed at https://transcriptdaily.com/2017/04/22/kb-home-kbh-shares-gap-up-after-earnings-beat.html.

About KB Home

KB HOME is a homebuilding company. The Company is engaged in selling and building a range of new homes designed primarily for first-time, move-up and active adult homebuyers, including attached and detached single-family residential homes. It operates through five segments, which consist of four homebuilding segments and one financial services segment.