Lennar Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.50 (NYSE:LEN)

Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 15th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the construction company on Wednesday, February 12th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 29th.

Lennar has increased its dividend payment by an average of 26.0% per year over the last three years. Lennar has a payout ratio of 13.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Lennar to earn $16.04 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.5%.

Lennar Price Performance

NYSE LEN traded up $3.32 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $138.50. The stock had a trading volume of 3,443,904 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,961,369. Lennar has a twelve month low of $128.41 and a twelve month high of $193.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 4.90 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $154.76 and its 200 day moving average is $167.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.17, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.66.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The construction company reported $4.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.15 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $9.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.06 billion. Lennar had a return on equity of 15.47% and a net margin of 11.51%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.82 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Lennar will post 14.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on LEN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Lennar from $192.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Lennar from $190.00 to $162.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Lennar from $180.00 to $165.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Bank Of America (Bofa) raised their price objective on shares of Lennar from $171.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Lennar from $240.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lennar presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lennar news, Director Jeffrey Sonnenfeld sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.13, for a total value of $3,064,775.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 23,689 shares in the company, valued at $4,148,654.57. The trade was a 42.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 9.36% of the company’s stock.

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.