KB Home (NYSE:KBH) Cut to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of KB Home (NYSE:KBH) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Wednesday.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on KBH. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on KB Home from $63.00 to $57.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on KB Home from $81.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of KB Home in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of KB Home from $67.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of KB Home from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.21.

KB Home Price Performance

KBH stock opened at $57.79 on Wednesday. KB Home has a 52-week low of $56.41 and a 52-week high of $89.70. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $63.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 5.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.89.

KB Home (NYSE:KBH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 24th. The construction company reported $1.49 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.76 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that KB Home will post 8.42 EPS for the current year.

KB Home Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. KB Home’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.20%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Jeff Kaminski sold 27,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were 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 owns 34,473 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,370,708.21. This represents a 44.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.89% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of KB Home

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of KB Home by 65.6% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 540 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 214 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. grew its holdings in KB Home by 43.6% in the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 590 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in KB Home by 275.7% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 759 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 557 shares during the period. Amundi raised its stake in KB Home by 29.6% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 880 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in KB Home during the 3rd quarter worth $59,000. 96.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About KB Home

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.