KB Home (NYSE:KBH) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.25 Per Share

KB Home (NYSE:KBH) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 9th will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the construction company on Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 8th. This is a boost from KB Home’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20.

KB Home has increased its dividend payment by an average of 18.6% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 1 years. KB Home has a dividend payout ratio of 9.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect KB Home to earn $8.72 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 9.2%.

KB Home Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of KBH stock opened at $61.03 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.73. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.52. KB Home has a 12-month low of $40.97 and a 12-month high of $72.00.

KB Home (NYSE:KBH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 20th. The construction company reported $1.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $1.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.46 billion. KB Home had a return on equity of 15.78% and a net margin of 9.29%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.45 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that KB Home will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at KB Home

In other news, CEO Jeffrey T. Mezger sold 165,307 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.40, for a total transaction of $9,819,235.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,491,298 shares in the company, valued at $88,583,101.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.12, for a total value of $330,660.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $546,971.76. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jeffrey T. Mezger sold 165,307 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.40, for a total value of $9,819,235.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,491,298 shares in the company, valued at $88,583,101.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 412,021 shares of company stock worth $24,954,977 over the last quarter. 4.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Harbour Investments Inc. purchased a new position in KB Home in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in KB Home in the first quarter valued at about $40,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in KB Home by 35.5% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,169 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 568 shares during the period. KBC Group NV purchased a new position in KB Home in the fourth quarter valued at about $91,000. Finally, Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new position in KB Home in the second quarter valued at about $135,000. 96.09% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KBH has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays upped their price target on KB Home from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on KB Home from $68.50 to $70.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. UBS Group upped their price target on KB Home from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Wedbush upped their price target on KB Home from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on KB Home from $61.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.11.

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.