Continue reading D.R. Horton: Buy or Sell?

D.R. Horton: Buy or Sell? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you want to talk pain, talk to investors who own D.R. Horton (DHI). They were feeling quite miserable today. With a little over an hour to go before the market closes up shop, shares of the homebuilder were off by 5.7% to $11.48 as the market digested the latest quarterly report. Strong volume backed the trade.

The 52-week low for the stock is $9.41 while the 52-week high is $15.44. The one-year chart can be interpreted in a couple different ways (such is the limitation of technical analysis). While the big plunge in the middle cannot be ignored, the sideways trading aspect could be indicative that the shares are trying to find a level of support.

Continue reading D.R. Horton Down After Earnings Release

D.R. Horton Down After Earnings Release originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) saw its earnings-per-share plunge from a profit of $3.90 in 2006 to a staggering loss of $8.34 last year. Fortunately, the worst is behind us. This year D.R. Horton will probably lose about $1 per share.

I don't like to see any loss, but this is a huge improvement. In fact, I think there's even a good chance D.R. Horton could start posting some earnings gains by next year.

D.R. Horton is also a buy.

Next: Home builder stock #3

Home builder stock #2: D.R. Horton (DHI) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The past few years haven't been what you might call a happy time for shares of home building stocks. Consider that the Homebuilders Exchange-Traded Fund (NYSE: XHB) plunged from $40 per share in early 2007 to just $8 per share earlier this year.

Since March, however, things have improved. There are signs that the housing market is getting back on its feet -- or at least, declining less slowly. Existing home sales recently registered their biggest gain in more than a decade. Seasonally-adjusted single-family building permits are up 27% since bottoming in March, while single-family housing starts have increased five straight months and are up 36% since March.

Continue reading Is it safe to buy home builders?

Is it safe to buy home builders? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Shares in Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) struggled to hold onto ground gained early in the trading session, a day after the luxury home-builder reported a much larger quarterly loss. Shares rallied shortly after the morning bell on comments from Toll on Thursday that it sees the U.S. housing market beginning to stabilize.

Trading volume hit a peak just before 10 a.m. ET when 95,000 shares traded hands. But a new survey showing a decline in consumer confidence helped push trading volume lower and the stock dipped into negative territory before resuming positive gains.

Continue reading Toll Brothers shares rise as overall market slips

Toll Brothers shares rise as overall market slips originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) is scheduled to discuss its fiscal third-quarter 2009 results tomorrow in a conference call at 2:00 PM ET hosted by CEO Robert I. Toll. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website.

Recent good news about the housing sector ought to be good news for homebuilders such as Toll Brothers. Yet, for the three months that ended July 31, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the Pennsylvania-based company to report that its net loss widened to $1.74 per share from $0.18 per share a year ago. That largely due to the fact that revenue for the quarter is expected to have fallen 42.3% to $460.2 million, because of of falling home prices, tighter mortgage lending standards, and rising unemployment.

Continue reading Toll Brothers earnings preview: A big Q3 loss expected

Toll Brothers earnings preview: A big Q3 loss expected originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Most investors got slammed last year, down 50% or more in their investments. Didn't matter if they owned stocks or real estate, they got hammered. Many have to start over. And if they're near retirement, it's scary. Years of patient investing wiped out, gains that were made over a long time disappeared frighteningly fast.

But now it's time to begin fresh, to rebuild. What's the safest way to regain some or all of the losses without suffering another wipeout?

Continue reading Comfort Zone Investing: Starting over

Comfort Zone Investing: Starting over originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last week's Fed Beige Book report and GDP numbers suggested that the economy may be stabilizing, and this coming week will bring plenty of economic data to confirm or deny that suggestion. On the schedule are consumer credit, construction spending, factory orders, and pending home sales for June, the employment situation, the Import Price Index, and new motor vehicle sales for July, as well as the ISM Manufacturing and Non-manufacturing Indexes for July.

The week will also bring quarterly reports from home builders Beazer Homes USA Inc. (NYSE: BZH), D.R. Horton Inc. (NYSE: DHI), and Pulte Homes Inc. (NYSE: PHM). Yet again, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect all three to have narrowed their losses in the most recent quarter. However, they've all tended to post deeper-than-expected losses in recent quarters as well. Analysts also expect to see their revenue down 45% or more for the past quarter. They forecast long-term EPS growth of 7% or more, but none of these homebuilders has a First Call consensus buy recommendation, not surprisingly. Short interest is falling off for Beazer and D.R. Horton, and D.R. Horton and Pulte have been reporting positive cash flow from operations, but all three of them said they had more long-term debt than cash in hand last time around. Mortgage insurer PMI Group Inc. (NYSE: PMI) is likewise expected to report that it narrowed its second-quarter loss.

Continue reading The week in preview: Seeking more signs of economic stability

The week in preview: Seeking more signs of economic stability originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hovnanian Enterprises (NYSE: HOV), a home builder whose related companies include Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL), Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN), and D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI), reported Q2 results on Tuesday after the bell. The company reported a loss of $1.50 per share (the results included a gain related to debt extinguishment). That unfortunately did not meet analyst expectations according to Trey Thoelcke's earnings preview. Analysts were looking for a loss of $1.26 per share.

However, things do look better. Last year at this time, the loss recorded by Hovnanian was a whopping $5.29 per share. Revenues, however, plummeted to $398 million from over $770 million. Analysts were expecting only $348 million according to the preview.

Continue reading Hovnanian's Q1 shows an improvement

Hovnanian's Q1 shows an improvement originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 03 Jun 2009 08:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Horton doesn't get it

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Horton doesn't get it originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading SmartMoney sees homebuilders poised for a nice recovery

SmartMoney sees homebuilders poised for a nice recovery originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 May 2008 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading D.R. Horton (DHI) swings to 2Q loss on hefty charges

D.R. Horton (DHI) swings to 2Q loss on hefty charges originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 06 May 2008 08:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Cancellations of new homes continue to surge and D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI), the nation's largest home builder, reported a 39% drop in fiscal fourth-quarter net orders, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal today [subscription required]. At the end of the quarter on September 30, D.R. Horton said it had orders for 6,374 homes worth $1.31 billion. Last year for the same quarter, orders totaled 10,430 worth $2.53 billion. The cancellation rate was also up over the rate in the third quarter. Third quarter cancellation rate was 38% and it was 48% in the fourth quarter.

Chairman Donald R. Horton told the Journal that market conditions "declined" and inventories are high. He said, "Buyers continued to approach the home buying decision cautiously. We expect the housing environment to remain challenging."

Pre-market trading in the stock shows a 2.43% drop over yesterday's closing price of $13.58 to $13.25. Expect the drop to continue as the news hits the markets today. Clearly there is no light at the end of the tunnel yet for home builders.

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage

Orders drop by 39% at D.R. Horton, stock declining originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There are times when Wall Street, to borrow a phrase, takes "two steps forward and one step back."

Then there are times when the Street simply stands, and waits for the events on the ground to clarify the financial landscape.

And that was the case Tuesday, as Monday's rally faded into Tuesday's 140-point Dow sell-off. And one reason was the subprime issue in general, which seems to offer a data point daily regarding the sector's health, and its impact on the housing sector, and the economy.

Tuesday's data point was American Home Mortgage (NYSE: AHM), which dropped more than 80% to about $1.00 per share from its recent $10.50 per share after the company indicated it is unable to borrow money under its banks lines and is looking at ways to raise money, including "the orderly liquidation of assets."

Continue reading AHM provides a data point, and Wall Street awaits more...

AHM provides a data point, and Wall Street awaits more... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 01 Aug 2007 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Today the stock market is getting slammed, with the Dow down over 360 points. In my view, that's because many of the bad things that investors have been worrying about for years are all happening at the same time:

• Spiking oil prices -- a barrel of crude oil was up $1.12 at $77.
• Tanking housing market. Disappointing results from home builders including Pulte Homes Inc. (NYSE: PHM) and D.R. Horton Inc. (NYSE: DHI) -- squeezed by a sluggish environment from home sales and continued defaults in subprime loans -- weighed heavily on the market.
• Drying up of private equity financing -- as I posted earlier today.

Over the last few weeks, these worries have been masked by an onslaught of big mergers. But the mergers aren't happening today. Moreover, if the credit markets decide to turn their back on future deals, the only thing to stop the market from freefalling would be big companies exceeding earnings expectations.

What should you do? Probably nothing if you're in it for the long term, eventually all the bad news will come out and there will be a buying opportunity. But not yet.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned in this post.

Market tanks: Oil, housing, and credit crunch to blame originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

News flash! Citigroup (finally) downgrades housing stocks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 02 Jul 2007 13:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rumors, scandals and investigations at Beazer originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 28 Jun 2007 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

2007 will suck, all 12 months? So says DR Horton CEO originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 07 Mar 2007 17:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: OSI Restaurant Partners (OSI), D.R. Horton (DHI) and Microsoft (MSFT) top today's list of downgrades.

• OSI Restaurant Partners, Inc. (NYSE:OSI) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Oppenheimer.
• The firm believes the $40 bid is fair and the risk/reward of waiting for a deal outweighs the potential modest increases of other bids. D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI) was downgraded to Sell from Buy at Merrill Lynch. They expect 2007's outlook to be a negative catalyst for the homebuilder.
• Bank of America resumed coverage of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) with a Neutral, below their previous rating of Buy. They believe Microsoft's core earnings drivers are not all Vista-related and that given the company's valuation, sees few near-term catalysts to drive shares higher.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• C.E. Unterberg downgraded Netease.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTES) to Market Perform from Buy, citing a lack of near-term growth drivers after reporting weak Q3 results.
• Himax Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:HIMX) was downgraded to Sell from Buy at Merrill Lynch also following the company's Q3 results.
• Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB) was downgraded at A.G. Edwards to Hold from Buy. The firm said shares are trading based on a sale of the company. They believe downside risk is valued at $26-$29 with no sale and upside as much as $40 a share if the company was sold.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

Analyst downgrades 11-7-06: Microsoft, D.R. Horton, OSI downgraded originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 07 Nov 2006 11:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.