Lennar, NYSE: LEN, Reports EPS Of $0.63, Revenues $2.0 Billion, First Quarter 2016 Earnings
Lennar Corporation (NYSE: LEN) reported its first quarter fiscal-2016 financial results this morning. Highlights included gross revenues of $2.0 billion, beating the Wall Street consensus of analyst estimates, $1.86 billion, which ranged from $1.79 billion to $1.98 billion and earnings per share of $0.63 beating the estimate consensus of $0.52, by 21.2 percent.
Revenues included in today’s results equate to year-over-year sales growth of 21.2 percent. EPS numbers represent year-over-year growth of 26.0 percent.
“We are very pleased with our first quarter results as we achieved pre-tax earnings of $201.7 million, our highest first quarter pre-tax earnings since 2006. Despite global economic concerns and volatility in the stock market, our net earnings increased 25% year-over-year and we had solid performances in most of our businesses,” Lennar CEO Stuart Miller was quoted.
Lennar management is hosting a conference call today at 11 a.m. ET.
Analysts see Lennar EPS at $0.90 in the second quarter of 2016, $3.80 for the full year, and $4.22 next year. Estimates have remained steady over the past 90-day period. Twenty analysts publish 2017 Lennar sales estimates and 13 publish EPS estimates.
The consensus for EPS growth for the second quarter of 2016 was 13.90 percent going into today’s report. The full-year 2016 growth consensus was 9.80 percent, the 2017 consensus was 11.10 percent, and the consensus for average annual EPS growth over the coming five years, 11.60 percent, down considerably for the firm’s historical 5-year 65.10 percent annual EPS growth rate.
LEN stock has a 52-week low of $37.14 and a 52-week high of $56.04. The shares currently trade about 32 percent below their all-time high seen in July, 2005.
Over the past 10 years, LEN shares have lost about 14 percent of its value; the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) is up about 54 percent over the same period. Over the past five years, LEN stock is up about 154 percent, compared with a gain of near 125 percent for the Dow. Over the past 12 months, LEN shares are down about 9 percent, compared with a loss of near 2 percent for the Dow.
For the trailing twelve months from November 30, 2015, Lennar reported a profit margin of 8.48 percent and an operating margin of 11.81 percent. The homebuilder delivered a 14.63 percent return on equity for shareholders in 2015.
At the close of the 2015-fiscal year, Lennar reported cash of $1.05 billion and debt of $6.66 billion. Lennar’s debt to equity ratio was reported at 111.87 percent.
Lennar has several dozen bond issues, with maturities in every year from 2016 to 2022, as reported by Morningstar.
Fifteen research firms publish buy and sell recommendations in LEN stock. The current mean recommendation is 2.3, down from 2.4 last week, where 1.0 is a strong buy and 5.0 is a strong sell. The median research firm price target for LEN shares is $53; targets range from a low of $45 to a high of $63.
The most recent actions taken by analysts, with regard to LEN stock, took place in January, 2016, and included two upgrades; one by Susquehanna from “neutral” to “positive” and another by Sterne Agee CRT from “neutral” to “buy.”
Lennar is headed by Chief Executive Officer Stuart Little, employs 7,749 workers on a full-time basis, and maintains its head office in Miami, Florida. The company was founded in 1954, and its stock was first offered publicly in January 1978, as reported by CrunchBase.
LEN shares currently pay an annual dividend of $0.16, giving a yield near 0.35 percent. Lennar shares have a trailing twelve month price/earnings ratio of 13.51 and a forward PE of 11.08, based on full-year 2017 EPS estimates.
[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]
