Lennar Co. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.50 (NYSE:LEN)

Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 29th.

Lennar has raised its dividend by an average of 26.0% annually over the last three years. Lennar has a dividend payout ratio of 13.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 %

NYSE LEN traded up $3.32 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $138.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,865,759 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,176,229. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.17, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.66. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $154.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $167.57. The company has a current ratio of 4.90, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Lennar has a twelve month low of $128.41 and a twelve month high of $193.80.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last issued 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). Lennar had a net margin of 11.51% and a return on equity of 15.47%. The business had revenue of $9.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.82 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Lennar will post 14.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Lennar

In other Lennar news, Director Jeffrey Sonnenfeld sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the director now owns 23,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,148,654.57. The trade was a 42.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 9.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on LEN shares. Citigroup dropped their target price on Lennar from $196.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. BTIG Research downgraded shares of Lennar from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Lennar from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $130.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Lennar from $171.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of Lennar from $170.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lennar currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.50.

About Lennar

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.