Lennar (NYSE:LEN) Stock Rating Upgraded by Royal Bank of Canada

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) was upgraded by Royal Bank of Canada from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a $130.00 target price on the construction company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 0.32% from the company’s current price.

LEN has been the subject of several other reports. Bank Of America (Bofa) boosted their target price on shares of Lennar from $171.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Lennar from $240.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Lennar from $181.00 to $135.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Lennar from $196.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $164.00 price objective on shares of Lennar in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Lennar has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $171.50.

Lennar Stock Performance

Shares of LEN stock opened at $129.58 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $156.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $167.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 4.90 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The stock has a market cap of $35.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.66. Lennar has a one year low of $129.36 and a one year high of $193.80.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The construction company reported $4.03 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.15 by ($0.12). Lennar had a return on equity of 15.47% and a net margin of 11.51%. The business had revenue of $9.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.06 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.82 earnings per share. Lennar’s revenue was down 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Lennar will post 14.11 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Jeffrey Sonnenfeld sold 17,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.13, for a total value of $3,064,775.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,148,654.57. This represents a 42.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 9.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lennar

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. D1 Capital Partners L.P. boosted its stake in Lennar by 428.9% during the second quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. now owns 2,420,000 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $362,685,000 after acquiring an additional 1,962,447 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in Lennar during the third quarter worth $115,229,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Lennar by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,250,626 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $308,696,000 after acquiring an additional 397,492 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Lennar by 15.1% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,021,856 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $452,886,000 after acquiring an additional 396,951 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its stake in Lennar by 258.3% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 494,848 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $92,774,000 after acquiring an additional 356,731 shares in the last quarter. 81.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Lennar

Lennar Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a homebuilder primarily under the Lennar brand in the United States. It operates through Homebuilding East, Homebuilding Central, Homebuilding Texas, Homebuilding West, Financial Services, Multifamily, and Lennar Other segments. The company’s homebuilding operations include the construction and sale of single-family attached and detached homes, as well as the purchase, development, and sale of residential land; and development, construction, and management of multifamily rental properties.