Wedbush Reiterates “Neutral” Rating for KB Home (NYSE:KBH)

Wedbush reissued their neutral rating on shares of KB Home (NYSE:KBH) in a report issued on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Wedbush currently has a $75.00 target price on the construction company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on KBH. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of KB Home from $67.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of KB Home from $63.00 to $57.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of KB Home from $85.00 to $76.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on KB Home from $82.00 to $74.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upgraded KB Home from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.13.

KB Home Stock Down 5.2 %

Shares of NYSE:KBH opened at $58.56 on Tuesday. KB Home has a 52-week low of $56.41 and a 52-week high of $89.70. The stock has a market cap of $4.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.91, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.89. The business has a fifty day moving average of $63.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $72.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 5.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

KB Home (NYSE:KBH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 24th. The construction company reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.56 by ($0.07). KB Home had a net margin of 9.45% and a return on equity of 16.46%. The firm had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.76 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that KB Home will post 8.42 earnings per share for the current year.

KB Home Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.71%. KB Home’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Jeff Kaminski sold 27,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.77, for a total transaction of $1,891,175.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 34,473 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,370,708.21. This represents a 44.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 3.89% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KB Home

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of KB Home by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,411,255 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $463,690,000 after buying an additional 1,752,498 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of KB Home by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,539,328 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $303,285,000 after purchasing an additional 45,311 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of KB Home by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,396,967 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $157,529,000 after purchasing an additional 56,142 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of KB Home by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,281,315 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $149,928,000 after purchasing an additional 75,143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of KB Home by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,938,359 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $166,125,000 after purchasing an additional 16,593 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.09% of the company’s stock.

KB Home Company Profile

KB Home operates as a homebuilding company in the United States. It operates through four segments: West Coast, Southwest, Central, and Southeast. It builds and sells various homes, including attached and detached single-family residential homes, townhomes, and condominiums primarily for first-time, first move-up, second move-up, and active adult homebuyers.