MQS Management LLC Buys Shares of 5,991 KB Home (NYSE:KBH)

MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of KB Home (NYSE:KBH) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 5,991 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $425,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in KBH. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of KB Home by 3.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,819,706 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $361,896,000 after purchasing an additional 263,194 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its holdings in shares of KB Home by 2,728.9% in the first quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 642,869 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $45,567,000 after purchasing an additional 620,144 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of KB Home in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,761,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in KB Home by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 320,087 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $19,993,000 after acquiring an additional 3,983 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Donald Smith & CO. Inc. increased its stake in KB Home by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 283,124 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $17,684,000 after acquiring an additional 3,098 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on KBH. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on KB Home from $74.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. Zelman & Associates reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $69.00 target price on shares of KB Home in a research note on Monday, May 13th. StockNews.com lowered KB Home from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wedbush raised their price target on KB Home from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on KB Home from $68.50 to $70.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, KB Home has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.88.

KB Home Stock Up 2.1 %

KB Home stock traded up $1.70 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $81.46. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,228,780 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,278,328. KB Home has a fifty-two week low of $42.11 and a fifty-two week high of $83.74. The company has a market cap of $6.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.80. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $71.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $67.17.

KB Home (NYSE:KBH) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, June 18th. The construction company reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.37. KB Home had a return on equity of 15.66% and a net margin of 9.43%. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that KB Home will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current year.

KB Home Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 22nd. Investors of record on Thursday, August 8th will be given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 8th. KB Home’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.23%.

Insider Activity at KB Home

In related news, Director Thomas W. Gilligan sold 3,914 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.48, for a total value of $275,858.72. Following the transaction, the director now owns 48,217 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,398,334.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other KB Home news, Director Thomas W. Gilligan sold 3,914 shares of KB Home stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.48, for a total value of $275,858.72. Following the sale, the director now owns 48,217 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,398,334.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Albert Z. Praw sold 22,160 shares of KB Home stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.11, for a total value of $1,553,637.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,512 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,500,746.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About KB Home

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.