Lennar Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:LEN)

Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors purchased 12,828 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 130% compared to the average daily volume of 5,578 put options.

Institutional Trading of Lennar

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LEN. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Lennar by 19.7% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,546,970 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $221,176,000 after purchasing an additional 419,745 shares during the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP raised its position in Lennar by 86.7% during the 2nd quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 2,523,594 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $279,135,000 after buying an additional 1,172,068 shares during the last quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. lifted its stake in Lennar by 90.9% during the 4th quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 1,963,373 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $201,835,000 after acquiring an additional 934,856 shares during the period. Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Lennar in the 4th quarter valued at $95,941,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its stake in shares of Lennar by 4.8% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 601,468 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $52,231,000 after acquiring an additional 27,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on LEN. Bank of America reduced their target price on Lennar from $84.00 to $77.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 12th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Lennar from $107.00 to $94.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. BTIG Research set a $67.00 price objective on shares of Lennar in a report on Monday, June 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Lennar from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Lennar from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and ten have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $92.13.

Lennar Trading Down 2.8%

NYSE LEN opened at $85.09 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $87.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $94.28. Lennar has a one year low of $79.82 and a one year high of $144.24. The company has a market capitalization of $20.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 4.91.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 11th. The construction company reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.24 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $7.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.08 billion. Lennar had a return on equity of 7.08% and a net margin of 4.93%.Lennar’s revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.81 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Lennar will post 5.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lennar Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 10th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Lennar’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.30%.

Lennar Company Profile

Lennar Corporation (NYSE: LEN) is a U.S.-based homebuilder and real estate company that designs, constructs and sells residential housing. The company offers a range of product types including single-family detached homes, townhomes and condominiums, serving buyers from entry-level and first-time purchasers to move-up, active-adult and luxury segments. Lennar also develops master-planned communities and manages land acquisition and entitlement activities that support its homebuilding operations.

In addition to home construction and sales, Lennar provides a suite of ancillary services intended to streamline the purchase process and capture additional value.