KB Home (NYSE:KBH) Short Interest Up 21.0% in February

KB Home (NYSE:KBH - Get Free Report) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,960,000 shares, an increase of 21.0% from the January 31st total of 4,100,000 shares. Approximately 7.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,270,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.9 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on KBH. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of KB Home from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays dropped 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 research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of KB Home from $70.00 to $65.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on KB Home from $85.00 to $76.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upgraded KB Home from an "underperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $70.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $75.38.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other KB Home news, CFO Jeff Kaminski sold 27,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 34,473 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,370,708.21. This trade represents a 44.37 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 4.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in KB Home by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 9,815 shares of the construction company's stock worth $645,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in KB Home by 43.6% in the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 590 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 179 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in KB Home by 15.3% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,465 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $96,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its holdings in KB Home by 29.6% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 880 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in KB Home by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 37,019 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $2,433,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares during the last quarter. 96.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

KB Home Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:KBH traded down $0.43 during trading on Friday, reaching $64.00. The stock had a trading volume of 1,163,702 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,398,139. KB Home has a 1-year low of $59.00 and a 1-year high of $89.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 5.51. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $64.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $74.67. The stock has a market cap of $4.62 billion, a PE ratio of 7.56, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.89.

KB Home (NYSE:KBH - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 13th. The construction company reported $2.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.44 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.99 billion. KB Home had a net margin of 9.45% and a return on equity of 16.46%. KB Home's quarterly revenue was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.85 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that KB Home will post 8.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

KB Home Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 6th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 6th. KB Home's dividend payout ratio is currently 11.81%.

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.