Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) was the target of a large increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,970,000 shares, an increase of 16.0% from the February 13th total of 7,730,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,260,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days. Approximately 4.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on LEN. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered Lennar from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $152.00 to $141.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Lennar from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Lennar from $130.00 to $125.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup reduced their target price on Lennar from $196.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Lennar from $135.00 to $121.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lennar presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $164.53.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lennar

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LEN. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Lennar in the 4th quarter valued at about $218,533,000. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in Lennar during the third quarter worth $115,229,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Lennar by 22.0% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,271,319 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $446,110,000 after purchasing an additional 589,553 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Lennar by 18.9% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,239,488 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $441,769,000 after purchasing an additional 515,378 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Lennar by 21.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,250,626 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $308,696,000 after buying an additional 397,492 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.10% of the company’s stock.

Lennar Trading Up 0.8 %

LEN traded up $0.98 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $121.28. 1,058,512 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,215,057. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.46, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.69. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $126.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $154.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 4.71. Lennar has a one year low of $115.61 and a one year high of $193.80.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The construction company reported $4.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.15 by ($0.12). Lennar had a net margin of 11.10% and a return on equity of 13.93%. The business had revenue of $9.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.06 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $4.82 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Lennar will post 12.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lennar Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 29th. Lennar’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.95%.

Lennar Company Profile

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.