D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI) Short Interest Up 31.3% in November

D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,130,000 shares, a growth of 31.3% from the October 31st total of 6,190,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,410,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.4 days. Approximately 2.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Activity at D.R. Horton

In other news, Director Barbara K. Allen sold 5,650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.10, for a total value of $921,515.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.74% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of D.R. Horton

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC purchased a new position in D.R. Horton during the third quarter worth about $1,853,178,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in D.R. Horton by 44.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,906,129 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,508,252,000 after acquiring an additional 2,442,581 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in D.R. Horton by 1,761.6% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,043,909 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $147,118,000 after acquiring an additional 987,834 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in D.R. Horton by 51.2% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,657,028 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $233,525,000 after acquiring an additional 561,337 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new stake in D.R. Horton during the third quarter worth about $72,672,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.63% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on DHI shares. BTIG Research lowered their price target on shares of D.R. Horton from $190.00 to $186.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wedbush upgraded D.R. Horton from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $165.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Raymond James cut D.R. Horton from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on D.R. Horton from $220.00 to $190.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of D.R. Horton from $200.00 to $192.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $185.87.

D.R. Horton Price Performance

Shares of DHI stock traded down $0.65 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $168.78. The company had a trading volume of 1,148,800 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,507,221. D.R. Horton has a 12-month low of $125.43 and a 12-month high of $199.85. The company has a market capitalization of $54.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.75, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a current ratio of 7.32. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $177.29 and a 200-day moving average of $168.21.

D.R. Horton (NYSE:DHI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $3.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.17 by ($0.25). The company had revenue of $10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.22 billion. D.R. Horton had a net margin of 12.93% and a return on equity of 19.24%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $4.45 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that D.R. Horton will post 14.4 earnings per share for the current year.

D.R. Horton Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 19th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.95%. This is a positive change from D.R. Horton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. D.R. Horton’s payout ratio is presently 11.14%.

About D.R. Horton

D.R. Horton, Inc operates as a homebuilding company in East, North, Southeast, South Central, Southwest, and Northwest regions in the United States. It engages in the acquisition and development of land; and construction and sale of residential homes in 118 markets across 33 states under the names of D.R.