Golden State Wealth Management LLC Buys New Position in Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN)

Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,085 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in LEN. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in shares of Lennar by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,903,555 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,106,798,000 after purchasing an additional 73,638 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Lennar by 22.0% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,271,319 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $446,110,000 after acquiring an additional 589,553 shares in the last quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Lennar by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,666,905 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $499,991,000 after acquiring an additional 89,896 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Lennar by 21.4% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,250,626 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $308,696,000 after purchasing an additional 397,492 shares during the period. Finally, Bamco Inc. NY boosted its position in shares of Lennar by 2.6% during the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 711,023 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $133,303,000 after purchasing an additional 17,834 shares in the last quarter. 81.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on LEN. Barclays lowered their price objective on Lennar from $135.00 to $121.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Lennar from $150.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of Lennar from $210.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $164.00 price target on shares of Lennar in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered Lennar from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $167.19.

Lennar Stock Down 4.2 %

Shares of Lennar stock opened at $121.95 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. Lennar Co. has a twelve month low of $121.40 and a twelve month high of $193.80. The company has a market cap of $32.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.67. The company’s 50 day moving average is $141.34 and its 200 day moving average is $164.69.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last released 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 firm had revenue of $9.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.06 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $4.82 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Lennar Co. will post 12.52 EPS for the current year.

Lennar Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 29th. Lennar’s payout ratio is 13.95%.

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.