KB Home (NYSE:KBH) Upgraded by Seaport Res Ptn to “Strong-Buy” Rating

Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of KB Home (NYSE:KBH) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

KBH has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of KB Home from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of KB Home from $76.00 to $71.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of KB Home from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of KB Home from $85.00 to $60.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of KB Home from $85.00 to $76.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.21.

KB Home Stock Performance

KBH opened at $64.39 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.60, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a fifty day moving average of $65.02 and a 200 day moving average of $74.83. KB Home has a fifty-two week low of $59.00 and a fifty-two week high of $89.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 5.51.

KB Home (NYSE:KBH) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 13th. The construction company reported $2.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.44 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.99 billion. KB Home had a net margin of 9.45% and a return on equity of 16.46%. KB Home’s quarterly revenue was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.85 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that KB Home will post 8.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KB Home Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 6th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.55%. KB Home’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.81%.

Insider Transactions at KB Home

In related news, CFO Jeff Kaminski sold 27,500 shares of KB Home stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.77, for a total transaction of $1,891,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 34,473 shares in the company, valued at $2,370,708.21. This trade represents a 44.37 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 4.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KB Home

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KBH. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in KB Home by 47.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,411,255 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $463,690,000 after buying an additional 1,752,498 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in KB Home during the 3rd quarter valued at about $89,899,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in KB Home during the 4th quarter valued at about $49,638,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in KB Home during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,118,000. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its holdings in KB Home by 4,408.6% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 523,000 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $34,372,000 after buying an additional 511,400 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.09% of the company’s stock.

About KB Home

KB Home operates as a homebuilding company in the United States. It operates through four segments: West Coast, Southwest, Central, and Southeast. It builds and sells various homes, including attached and detached single-family residential homes, townhomes, and condominiums primarily for first-time, first move-up, second move-up, and active adult homebuyers.