Ellsworth Advisors LLC Buys 252 Shares of Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN)

Ellsworth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,459 shares of the construction company’s stock after acquiring an additional 252 shares during the period. Ellsworth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Lennar were worth $2,244,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LEN. D1 Capital Partners L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Lennar by 428.9% in the second quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. now owns 2,420,000 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $362,685,000 after acquiring an additional 1,962,447 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in Lennar in the 3rd quarter valued at $115,229,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of Lennar by 21.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,250,626 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $308,696,000 after purchasing an additional 397,492 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its stake in shares of Lennar by 258.3% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 494,848 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $92,774,000 after purchasing an additional 356,731 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Lennar by 20.9% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,015,641 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $302,084,000 after buying an additional 348,553 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LEN has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Lennar from $181.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Lennar from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Lennar from $192.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Lennar from $210.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Lennar from $240.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $171.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Jeffrey Sonnenfeld sold 17,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.13, for a total transaction of $3,064,775.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,148,654.57. This represents a 42.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 9.36% of the company’s stock.

Lennar Stock Performance

Lennar stock opened at $141.55 on Monday. Lennar Co. has a fifty-two week low of $128.41 and a fifty-two week high of $193.80. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $152.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $167.49. The stock has a market cap of $38.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 4.71.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The construction company reported $4.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.15 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $9.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.06 billion. Lennar had a return on equity of 13.93% and a net margin of 11.10%. Lennar’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.82 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Lennar Co. will post 13.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lennar Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 29th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.41%. Lennar’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.95%.

Lennar Profile

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.