Quantessence Capital LLC Buys New Stake in KB Home (NYSE:KBH)

Quantessence Capital LLC purchased a new position in KB Home (NYSE:KBH) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 4,712 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $310,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in KBH. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of KB Home in the fourth quarter worth about $49,638,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in KB Home in the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,118,000. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of KB Home by 61.2% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,327,809 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $87,264,000 after acquiring an additional 503,895 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of KB Home during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $12,288,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its position in shares of KB Home by 4,083.5% during the 4th quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 146,422 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $9,623,000 after acquiring an additional 142,922 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.09% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other KB Home news, CFO Jeff Kaminski sold 27,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.77, for a total value of $1,891,175.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 34,473 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,370,708.21. The trade was a 44.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.89% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

KB Home Trading Up 5.2 %

Shares of KBH opened at $53.71 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 5.51 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.34, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a 50-day moving average of $58.50 and a 200 day moving average of $68.32. KB Home has a 1-year low of $48.90 and a 1-year high of $89.70.

KB Home (NYSE:KBH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 24th. The construction company reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.56 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. KB Home had a return on equity of 16.46% and a net margin of 9.45%. KB Home’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.76 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that KB Home will post 8.42 EPS for the current year.

KB Home Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Thursday, May 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 8th. KB Home’s payout ratio is 12.20%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of KB Home from $82.00 to $74.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of KB Home from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on KB Home from $97.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Barclays lowered their price objective on KB Home from $60.00 to $56.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on KB Home from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.04.

KB Home Profile

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.