New Age Alpha Advisors LLC Acquires New Position in Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN)

New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new position in Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 26,137 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,564,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in Lennar in the third quarter worth approximately $115,229,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Lennar by 22.0% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,271,319 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $446,110,000 after buying an additional 589,553 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Lennar by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,250,626 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $308,696,000 after buying an additional 397,492 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in shares of Lennar in the fourth quarter valued at about $19,364,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lifted its stake in Lennar by 2,774.5% in the fourth quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 123,142 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $16,793,000 after acquiring an additional 118,858 shares during the period. 81.10% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Lennar from $183.00 to $164.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. StockNews.com lowered Lennar from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $158.00 price target on shares of Lennar in a report on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Lennar from $192.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price on Lennar from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lennar currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $151.07.

Lennar Trading Down 3.5 %

NYSE LEN opened at $113.83 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $30.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a current ratio of 4.71, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Lennar Co. has a 12-month low of $111.26 and a 12-month high of $187.61. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $124.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $151.33.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The construction company reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.44. The company had revenue of $7.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.44 billion. Lennar had a return on equity of 13.93% and a net margin of 11.10%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.57 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Lennar Co. will post 12.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Lennar Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, January 29th. Lennar’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.57%.

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.