JPMorgan Chase & Co. Boosts Holdings in KB Home (NYSE:KBH)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of KB Home (NYSE:KBH) by 24.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 727,809 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 142,913 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in KB Home were worth $47,832,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its position in KB Home by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,539,328 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $303,285,000 after acquiring an additional 45,311 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of KB Home by 3.4% in 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 purchasing an additional 75,143 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of KB Home by 0.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,938,359 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $166,125,000 after purchasing an additional 16,593 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in KB Home by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 756,810 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $49,738,000 after purchasing an additional 15,867 shares during the period. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its stake in KB Home by 15.4% in the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 699,668 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $45,982,000 after purchasing an additional 93,277 shares during the period. 96.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on KBH shares. StockNews.com cut shares of KB Home from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of KB Home in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of KB Home from $97.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of KB Home from $63.00 to $57.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price target on KB Home from $67.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.21.

KB Home Stock Performance

KBH stock opened at $57.61 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $62.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.48. 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 has a 12-month low of $54.02 and a 12-month high of $89.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.12 billion, a PE ratio of 6.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.65.

KB Home (NYSE:KBH) last announced 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). KB Home had a net margin of 9.45% and a return on equity of 16.46%. The business had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that KB Home will post 8.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KB Home Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 6th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.74%. KB Home’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.20%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Jeff Kaminski sold 27,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 34,473 shares in the company, valued at $2,370,708.21. This trade represents a 44.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 3.89% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.