KB Home (NYSE:KBH) Short Interest Up 21.0% in February

KB Home (NYSE:KBH) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,960,000 shares, a growth of 21.0% from the January 31st total of 4,100,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,270,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.9 days. Approximately 7.1% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other KB Home news, CFO Jeff Kaminski sold 27,500 shares of KB Home stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,370,708.21. The trade was a 44.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 4.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On KB Home

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC lifted its stake in KB Home by 47.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,411,255 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $463,690,000 after purchasing an additional 1,752,498 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in KB Home by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,539,328 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $303,285,000 after purchasing an additional 45,311 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in KB Home by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,396,967 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $157,529,000 after acquiring an additional 56,142 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of KB Home by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,281,315 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $149,928,000 after acquiring an additional 75,143 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in KB Home by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,938,359 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $166,125,000 after purchasing an additional 16,593 shares during the last quarter. 96.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

KB Home Price Performance

KBH traded down $0.85 on Friday, reaching $63.58. The company had a trading volume of 271,759 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,376,739. KB Home has a one year low of $59.00 and a one year high of $89.70. The company has a market capitalization of $4.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.48, 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. The company has a current ratio of 5.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

KB Home (NYSE:KBH) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 13th. The construction company reported $2.52 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.44 by $0.08. KB Home had a return on equity of 16.46% and a net margin of 9.45%. The firm had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.99 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.85 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that KB Home will post 8.42 earnings per share for the current year.

KB Home Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 6th. KB Home’s payout ratio is currently 11.81%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on KBH. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped 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. Royal Bank of Canada raised KB Home from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $70.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of KB Home from $85.00 to $76.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group reduced their target price on KB Home from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective (down from $93.00) on shares of KB Home in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $76.21.

KB Home Company 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.