Franklin Resources Inc. Grows Holdings in D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI)

Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI) by 71.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,574,409 shares of the construction company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,490,648 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in D.R. Horton were worth $499,774,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of DHI. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG increased its position in D.R. Horton by 60.5% in the 4th quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG now owns 14,690 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $2,054,000 after acquiring an additional 5,535 shares during the period. Cannell & Spears LLC grew its stake in shares of D.R. Horton by 147.6% in the 4th quarter. Cannell & Spears LLC now owns 125,462 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $17,542,000 after purchasing an additional 74,786 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in shares of D.R. Horton by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 551,701 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $77,139,000 after purchasing an additional 27,621 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd raised its stake in shares of D.R. Horton by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 4,662 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $652,000 after purchasing an additional 616 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bcwm LLC acquired a new stake in shares of D.R. Horton during the fourth quarter worth $7,385,000. 90.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

D.R. Horton Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE:DHI opened at $127.16 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 6.92. The company has a market capitalization of $40.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.80. D.R. Horton, Inc. has a one year low of $124.23 and a one year high of $199.85. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $132.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $154.36.

D.R. Horton (NYSE:DHI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The construction company reported $2.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.37 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $7.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.12 billion. D.R. Horton had a return on equity of 18.48% and a net margin of 12.69%. The business’s revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.82 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that D.R. Horton, Inc. will post 13.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

D.R. Horton Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. D.R. Horton’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.31%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on DHI shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut shares of D.R. Horton from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $183.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of D.R. Horton from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 25th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of D.R. Horton from $214.00 to $203.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of D.R. Horton in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut D.R. Horton from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $188.00 to $156.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, D.R. Horton has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $170.93.

About D.R. Horton

D.R. Horton, Inc operates as a homebuilding company in East, North, Southeast, South Central, Southwest, and Northwest regions in the United States. It engages in the acquisition and development of land; and construction and sale of residential homes in 118 markets across 33 states under the names of D.R.