Empirical Finance LLC Sells 10,090 Shares of KB Home (NYSE:KBH)

Empirical Finance LLC lessened its stake in shares of KB Home (NYSE:KBH) by 52.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 8,966 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 10,090 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in KB Home were worth $589,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC raised its stake in KB Home by 47.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,411,255 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $463,690,000 after acquiring an additional 1,752,498 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of KB Home during the 3rd quarter valued at $89,899,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of KB Home during the 4th quarter valued at $44,118,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in KB Home by 22.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 906,236 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $77,655,000 after buying an additional 164,010 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in KB Home by 201.8% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 216,645 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $18,564,000 after buying an additional 144,854 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on KBH shares. Bank of America dropped their price objective on KB Home from $76.00 to $71.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of KB Home from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $67.00 in a report on Friday, January 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of KB Home from $85.00 to $76.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of KB Home from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of KB Home from $85.00 to $60.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.21.

KB Home Price Performance

NYSE:KBH opened at $63.98 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.55, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 5.51 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $68.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $77.21. KB Home has a 1 year low of $60.00 and a 1 year high of $89.70.

KB Home (NYSE:KBH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 13th. The construction company reported $2.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by $0.08. KB Home had a return on equity of 16.46% and a net margin of 9.45%. The company had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.99 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.85 earnings per share. KB Home’s revenue was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that KB Home will post 8.42 EPS for the current year.

KB Home Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. KB Home’s payout ratio is 11.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Jeff Kaminski sold 27,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.77, for a total transaction of $1,891,175.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 34,473 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,370,708.21. This represents a 44.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 4.44% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

KB Home Company Profile

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.