Lennar Co. (LEN) To Go Ex-Dividend on January 29th

Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the construction company on Wednesday, February 12th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 29th.

Lennar has increased its dividend payment by an average of 26.0% annually over the last three years. Lennar has a payout ratio of 12.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Lennar to earn $16.07 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.4%.

Lennar Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of Lennar stock opened at $132.40 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 4.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company has a 50 day moving average of $149.60 and a 200 day moving average of $167.06. The company has a market capitalization of $35.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.66. Lennar has a 52-week low of $128.41 and a 52-week high of $193.80.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The construction company reported $4.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.15 by ($0.12). Lennar had a return on equity of 13.93% and a net margin of 11.10%. The business had revenue of $9.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.06 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.82 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Lennar will post 13.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on LEN shares. BTIG Research downgraded shares of Lennar from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Lennar from $190.00 to $162.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $164.00 target price on shares of Lennar in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Wolfe Research cut Lennar from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Lennar from $192.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.50.

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.