Lennar (NYSE:LEN) Raised to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lennar (NYSE:LEN) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Friday.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on LEN. Argus upped their price objective on shares of Lennar from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Lennar from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lowered their target price for the company from $180.00 to $174.00 in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Raymond James downgraded shares of Lennar from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. JMP Securities reiterated a market outperform rating and issued a $170.00 target price on shares of Lennar in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Lennar from $237.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $174.61.

Lennar Stock Down 5.3 %

Shares of NYSE LEN opened at $182.19 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 4.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $176.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $164.01. Lennar has a 12-month low of $102.90 and a 12-month high of $193.80. The firm has a market cap of $50.03 billion, a PE ratio of 12.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.61.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 19th. The construction company reported $3.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.62 by $0.28. Lennar had a net margin of 11.58% and a return on equity of 15.93%. The firm had revenue of $9.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.91 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Lennar will post 14.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lennar

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. D1 Capital Partners L.P. raised its stake in shares of Lennar by 428.9% during the second quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. now owns 2,420,000 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $362,685,000 after acquiring an additional 1,962,447 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lennar by 15.1% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,021,856 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $452,886,000 after acquiring an additional 396,951 shares in the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new position in shares of Lennar during the first quarter worth approximately $61,807,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lennar by 157.5% during the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 575,003 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $98,889,000 after acquiring an additional 351,698 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in shares of Lennar by 20.9% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,015,641 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $302,084,000 after acquiring an additional 348,553 shares in the last quarter. 81.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.