Why KB Home Shares Are Moving Higher Thursday

KB Home KBH shares are trading higher Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected financial results paired with an upbeat outlook.

• Q1 Revenue: $1.38 billion beat estimates of $1.31 billion
• Q1 EPS: $1.45 beat estimates of $1.14

Homes delivered decreased 3% year-over-year to 2,788, while average selling prices increased 2% to $494,500. KB Home ended the quarter with a backlog of 7,016 units worth $3.31 billion, down from a backlog of 11,886 units worth $5.71 billion on a year-over-year basis.

Net orders fell 49% year-over-year to 2,142. Gross orders were down 29% year-over-year, but increased 55% sequentially. KB Home also announced a new $500 million buyback.

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The company sees full-year 2023 revenues between $5.2 billion and $5.9 billion versus estimates of $5.31 billion. 

"As we entered the Spring selling season during the quarter, we began to see an increase in demand. This reflected in part the targeted sales strategies we deployed, together with a stabilizing mortgage interest rate environment," said Jeffrey Mezger, chairman, president and CEO of KB Home.

"As a result, we achieved a sequential improvement in our net orders in both January and February, and net orders have remained strong in the early weeks of March."

Following the print, UBS analyst John Lovallo maintained KB Home with a Buy and raised the price target from $45 to $48. RBC Capital analyst Mike Dahl maintained KB Home with a Sector Perform and raised the price target from $34 to $37.

KBH Price Action: KB Home shares are up 8.97% at $40.10 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay.