KB Home on Friday reported better-than-expected earnings and
revenue in its latest quarter, driven by increased demand in the
housing market.
Shares climbed 4.3% to $15.61 in premarket trading.
The housing market has picked up recently, as the Commerce
Department earlier this week said groundbreakings surged to a
seven-year high in April before falling 11% last month. Permits to
build new homes surged 12% last month to an annual rate of 1.275
million, the highest since August 2007. Meanwhile, permits for
apartment construction surged, while permits for single-family
homes, a much broader segment, rose modestly.
For the fiscal second quarter ended May 31, KB Home posted
earnings of $9.6 million, or 10 cents a share, down from $26.6
million, or 27 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue grew 10% to
$623 million. This beat Wall Street expectations of $619 million in
revenue and earnings of 8 cents a share, according to Thomson
Reuters.
Housing revenue rose 8% to $604.9 million, while land-sale
revenue rose to $15.9 million from $2.6 million.
The overall value of net orders, an indicator of the builder's
future performance, increased 38% from the prior-year period to
$1.05 billion, while net orders rose 33% to 3,015 homes.
The company's backlog as of May 31 was 4,733 homes, a 39%
increase from the same period a year earlier. The average selling
price rose 6% to $338,500.
Write to Neil Haggerty at neil.haggerty@wsj.com
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