KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Shares of Lennar are falling in premarket trading Friday, as the home builder’s warning of a weak housing market offset better-than-estimated quarterly results.
- Co-Chief Executive Officer Stuart Miller said high interest rates and inflation, as well as declining consumer confidence and a limited supply of affordable homes are weighing on consumer’s ability to access homeownership.
- Lennar shares are down by a quarter in the past 12 months through Thursday.
Shares of Lennar (LEN) are falling around 3% in premarket trading Friday, as the home builder’s warning of a weak housing market offset better-than-estimated quarterly results.
Co-Chief Executive Officer Stuart Miller said in a press release Thursday that a challenging “macroeconomic environment for homebuilding” weighed on the company in its fiscal first quarter. “While demand remains strong, persistently higher interest rates and inflation, combined with a downturn in consumer confidence and a limited supply of affordable homes, made it increasingly difficult for consumers to access homeownership,” he said.
Miller said in general, net prices for homes, as well as rents in overbuilt apartment markets, have begun to drop as “demand remains constrained by affordability.”
Miller said the company delivered 17,834 homes during the first fiscal quarter and recorded new orders for 18,355. But “reflecting continued weakness in the market,” the average sales price after incentives fell 1% year-over-year to $408,000, he said.
Lennar posted fiscal first quarter earnings per share (EPS) of $1.96 on revenue of $7.63 billion, ahead of Visible Alpha estimates of $1.75 and $7.48 billion, respectively.
For the second quarter, Lennar projected new orders between 22,500 and 23,500 and an average sales price in a range of $390,000 to $400,000.
Lennar shares are down by a quarter in the past 12 months through Thursday.