PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE:PHM) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE:PHM) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eleven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $144.14.

PHM has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of PulteGroup from $146.00 to $119.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of PulteGroup from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. UBS Group raised shares of PulteGroup from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $154.00 to $148.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. BTIG Research boosted their price objective on shares of PulteGroup from $139.00 to $156.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of PulteGroup from $162.00 to $155.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th.

Institutional Trading of PulteGroup

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PHM. Grove Bank & Trust raised its position in shares of PulteGroup by 18.4% during the 3rd quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 463 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of PulteGroup by 17.2% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 565 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $81,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Concord Wealth Partners raised its position in shares of PulteGroup by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 5,002 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $718,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of PulteGroup by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,054 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $438,000 after buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of PulteGroup by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,572 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $280,000 after buying an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.90% of the company’s stock.

PulteGroup Price Performance

PHM stock opened at $117.11 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $120.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $127.01. PulteGroup has a 52-week low of $100.24 and a 52-week high of $149.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.64, a PEG ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.73.

PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The construction company reported $3.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.25. PulteGroup had a net margin of 16.64% and a return on equity of 25.30%. The firm had revenue of $4.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.27 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.90 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that PulteGroup will post 12.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PulteGroup Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. This is a boost from PulteGroup’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. PulteGroup’s payout ratio is presently 6.49%.

PulteGroup Company Profile

PulteGroup, Inc, through its subsidiaries, primarily engages in the homebuilding business in the United States. It acquires and develops land primarily for residential purposes; and constructs housing on such land. The company also offers various home designs, including single-family detached, townhomes, condominiums, and duplexes under the Centex, Pulte Homes, Del Webb, DiVosta Homes, John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods, and American West brand names.