National Pension Service Trims Stock Holdings in Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN)

National Pension Service lowered its position in Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 365,548 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 15,080 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service’s holdings in Lennar were worth $47,902,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in Lennar by 1.3% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,903,555 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,106,798,000 after purchasing an additional 73,638 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Lennar by 22.0% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,271,319 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $446,110,000 after purchasing an additional 589,553 shares in the last quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Lennar by 3.5% in the third quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,666,905 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $499,991,000 after purchasing an additional 89,896 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in Lennar by 21.4% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,250,626 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $308,696,000 after purchasing an additional 397,492 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bamco Inc. NY grew its stake in Lennar by 2.6% in the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 711,023 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $133,303,000 after purchasing an additional 17,834 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on LEN. Wolfe Research cut Lennar from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Lennar from $170.00 to $152.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. BTIG Research cut Lennar from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Lennar from $205.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Lennar from $145.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lennar has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $163.88.

Lennar Stock Performance

Shares of LEN stock opened at $120.34 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 4.71 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The business has a fifty day moving average of $131.07 and a 200 day moving average of $159.81. Lennar Co. has a 1 year low of $117.90 and a 1 year high of $193.80.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last issued its 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). The firm had revenue of $9.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.06 billion. Lennar had a return on equity of 13.93% and a net margin of 11.10%. The business’s revenue was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $4.82 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Lennar Co. will post 12.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Lennar Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 29th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, January 29th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. Lennar’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.95%.

Lennar Company Profile

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.