Sapient Capital LLC Buys Shares of 104,340 Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN)

Sapient Capital LLC purchased a new position in Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 104,340 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,551,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lennar in the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Lennar in the third quarter worth about $28,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lennar during the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lennar in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Lennar during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $56,000. 81.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on LEN. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Lennar from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Lennar from $110.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $170.00 target price on shares of Lennar in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Lennar from $179.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $144.00 target price on shares of Lennar in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $163.88.

Lennar Price Performance

LEN stock traded up $2.89 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $158.10. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,678,221 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,013,571. The company has a current ratio of 5.47, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The company’s 50 day moving average is $159.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $145.36. Lennar Co. has a fifty-two week low of $102.90 and a fifty-two week high of $172.59. The stock has a market cap of $44.01 billion, a PE ratio of 11.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.55.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The construction company reported $2.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.36. The firm had revenue of $7.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.39 billion. Lennar had a return on equity of 15.90% and a net margin of 11.59%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.12 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Lennar Co. will post 14.46 EPS for the current year.

Lennar Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 24th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 23rd. Lennar’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.02%.

Insider Activity

In other Lennar news, Director Amy Banse bought 1,575 shares of Lennar stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were bought at an average price of $157.00 per share, for a total transaction of $247,275.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,859 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,861,863. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 9.36% of the company’s stock.

Lennar 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.