Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Increases Stake in Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) by 4.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,092 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 237 shares during the quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Lennar were worth $694,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LEN. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new position in shares of Lennar during the third quarter valued at about $115,229,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Lennar by 22.0% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,271,319 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $446,110,000 after buying an additional 589,553 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of Lennar by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,250,626 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $308,696,000 after buying an additional 397,492 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd increased its position in shares of Lennar by 2,774.5% during the fourth quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 123,142 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $16,793,000 after buying an additional 118,858 shares during the period. Finally, Prana Capital Management LP grew its holdings in Lennar by 68.6% in the third quarter. Prana Capital Management LP now owns 288,661 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $54,118,000 after purchasing an additional 117,430 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on LEN. Wolfe Research cut shares of Lennar from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $158.00 price objective on shares of Lennar in a report on Monday, March 17th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Lennar from $196.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Lennar from $190.00 to $162.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Lennar from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lennar presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $164.53.

Lennar Stock Down 4.1 %

LEN opened at $115.09 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 4.71, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Lennar Co. has a 1-year low of $111.26 and a 1-year high of $187.61. The company has a market capitalization of $30.56 billion, a PE ratio of 8.03, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.69. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $126.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $153.48.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The construction company reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.44. Lennar had a net margin of 11.10% and a return on equity of 13.93%. The business had revenue of $7.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.44 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.57 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Lennar Co. will post 12.48 EPS for the current year.

Lennar Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 29th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. Lennar’s payout ratio is 13.95%.

About Lennar

Lennar Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a homebuilder primarily under the Lennar brand in the United States. It operates through Homebuilding East, Homebuilding Central, Homebuilding Texas, Homebuilding West, Financial Services, Multifamily, and Lennar Other segments. The company’s homebuilding operations include the construction and sale of single-family attached and detached homes, as well as the purchase, development, and sale of residential land; and development, construction, and management of multifamily rental properties.