Hovnanian Enterprises Cuts Outlook and Misses Estimates
September 09 2016 - 11:10AM
Dow Jones News
Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. lowered its outlook for the year as
results for its latest quarter fell short of Wall Street
expectations.
Shares fell 8.6% to $1.81 in morning trading.
"We are fully aware that there is even more work to do in order
to return the company to higher levels of sustainable profits,"
Chief Executive Ara Hovnanian said.
For the fiscal year ending in October, Hovnanian cut its pretax
earnings estimate, excluding certain items, to $25 million to $35
million. The Red Bank, N.J., company previously had projected
adjusted pretax profit of $25 million to $50 million. It reaffirmed
its revenue guidance of between $2.7 billion and $2.9 billion.
The company said that since mid-October, it has paid off $320
million of debt, and after the quarter ended it issued $150 million
of new debt to refinance debt maturing next year.
For the period ended July 31, Hovnanian reported a loss of
$474,000, or zero cents on a per-share basis, compared with a
year-earlier loss of $7.7 million, or 5 cents a share. Last year's
period includes a $10 million income tax charge.
Still, revenue increased sharply, growing 33% to $716.9
million.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of
6 cents and revenue of $732.5 million.
Homebuilding gross margin, excluding certain items, fell to
16.9% from 17.8% a year prior.
Hovnanian delivered 10% more homes in the quarter, delivering
1,627 homes. The average price grew 9.9% to $412,477.
The number of contracts fell 7.3% to 1,537 homes, with their
average price falling 1.7% to $412,019.
The quarterly cancellation rate was 22%, compared with 20% a
year earlier.
Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 09, 2016 10:55 ET (14:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Hovnanian Enterprises (NYSE:HOV)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Hovnanian Enterprises (NYSE:HOV)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024