D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI) Short Interest Up 12.4% in September

D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI) saw a large increase in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,510,000 shares, an increase of 12.4% from the August 31st total of 4,900,000 shares. Currently, 1.9% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 2,510,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.2 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On D.R. Horton

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in D.R. Horton by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,856,397 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $5,735,620,000 after buying an additional 2,474,262 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of D.R. Horton by 1,761.6% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,043,909 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $147,118,000 after purchasing an additional 987,834 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in D.R. Horton by 51.2% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,657,028 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $233,525,000 after purchasing an additional 561,337 shares during the period. Long Pond Capital LP lifted its position in D.R. Horton by 438.6% during the first quarter. Long Pond Capital LP now owns 659,761 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $108,564,000 after purchasing an additional 537,276 shares during the period. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its holdings in D.R. Horton by 62.4% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,367,704 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $207,864,000 after purchasing an additional 525,705 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.63% of the company’s stock.

D.R. Horton Stock Performance

NYSE:DHI traded up $2.34 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $190.35. 1,550,687 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,485,805. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 7.22 and a quick ratio of 1.30. D.R. Horton has a 52-week low of $100.08 and a 52-week high of $199.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $62.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.96, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.73. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $183.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $160.69.

D.R. Horton (NYSE:DHI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The construction company reported $4.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.75 by $0.35. D.R. Horton had a net margin of 13.36% and a return on equity of 20.72%. The firm had revenue of $9.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.61 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.90 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that D.R. Horton will post 14.03 earnings per share for the current year.

D.R. Horton announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, July 18th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the construction company to buy up to 6.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

D.R. Horton Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. D.R. Horton’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.17%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of D.R. Horton from $200.00 to $217.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Barclays lifted their price target on D.R. Horton from $168.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Bank of America boosted their price target on D.R. Horton from $196.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on D.R. Horton from $141.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of D.R. Horton from $178.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, D.R. Horton presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $183.33.

About D.R. Horton

D.R. Horton, Inc operates as a homebuilding company in East, North, Southeast, South Central, Southwest, and Northwest regions in the United States. It engages in the acquisition and development of land; and construction and sale of residential homes in 118 markets across 33 states under the names of D.R.