Lennar Co. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.50 (NYSE:LEN)

Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the construction company on Wednesday, February 12th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 29th.

Lennar has raised its dividend payment by an average of 26.0% annually over the last three years. Lennar has a dividend payout ratio of 13.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Lennar to earn $16.07 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.4%.

Lennar Stock Up 2.5 %

Lennar stock opened at $138.50 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $37.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.66. Lennar has a twelve month low of $128.41 and a twelve month high of $193.80. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $154.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $167.57. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 4.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The construction company reported $4.03 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.15 by ($0.12). Lennar had a return on equity of 13.93% and a net margin of 11.10%. The business had revenue of $9.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.06 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.82 EPS. Lennar’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Lennar will post 13.02 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Jeffrey Sonnenfeld sold 17,500 shares of Lennar stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.13, for a total transaction of $3,064,775.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 23,689 shares in the company, valued at $4,148,654.57. This trade represents a 42.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 9.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LEN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Lennar from $240.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Lennar from $192.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Lennar from $171.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. StockNews.com downgraded Lennar from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 28th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Lennar from $196.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $171.50.

About Lennar

Lennar Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a homebuilder primarily under the Lennar brand in the United States. It operates through Homebuilding East, Homebuilding Central, Homebuilding Texas, Homebuilding West, Financial Services, Multifamily, and Lennar Other segments. The company’s homebuilding operations include the construction and sale of single-family attached and detached homes, as well as the purchase, development, and sale of residential land; and development, construction, and management of multifamily rental properties.