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

Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 15th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be given 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 yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 29th.

Lennar has increased its dividend payment by an average of 26.0% annually over the last three years. Lennar has a payout ratio of 13.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE LEN traded up $3.32 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $138.50. 3,443,904 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,961,369. The company has a market cap of $37.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.66. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $154.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $167.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 4.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Lennar has a one year low of $128.41 and a one year high of $193.80.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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). Lennar had a net margin of 11.51% and a return on equity of 15.47%. The company had revenue of $9.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $4.82 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Lennar will post 14.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LEN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Lennar from $240.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Barclays lowered their price objective on Lennar from $181.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. JMP Securities increased their price target on Lennar from $170.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $164.00 price objective on shares of Lennar in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Lennar from $196.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lennar currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $171.50.

Insider Transactions at Lennar

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

Lennar Company 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.