Lennar Q4 Profit Rises Driven By Strong Housing Market

(RTTNews) - Lennar Corp. (LEN) Wednesday reported an increase in profit for the fourth quarter, as revenues surged on strong demand demand for houses and increasing prices. However, shares of the homebuilder slipped over 7% in extended trading session.

Lennar reported fourth-quarter profit of $1.19 billion or $3.91 per share, up from $882.8 million or $2.82 per share last year. Excluding mark to market losses on public strategic technology investments, fourth-quarter earnings were $1.3 billion or $4.36 per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters on average had expected earnings of $4.15 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues for the quarter rose to $8.43 billion from $6.83 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $8.28 billion.

Revenues were higher primarily due to an 11% increase in the number of home deliveries and a 14% increase in the average sales price. New home deliveries increased to 17,819 homes in the fourth quarter from 16,090 homes last year. The average sales price of homes delivered was $448,000 from $393,000 a year ago.

Commenting on the results, Chairman Stuart Miller said, "Our record fourth quarter results reflect both continued strength in the housing market across the country, and continued housing supply shortage driven by limited entitled land, labor and supply chain constraints, and 10 years of production shortfall. While our new orders grew a controlled 2% compared to last year's seasonally strong fourth quarter, we achieved a homebuilding gross margin of 28.0% and homebuilding SG&A of 6.0%, leading to a 22.0% net margin, all of which are all-time Company records."

LEN closed Wednesday's trading at $113.09, up $1.94 or 1.75%, on the NYSE. The stock, however, slipped $8.06 or 7.13% in after-hours.