FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) _ D.R. Horton Inc. (DHI) on Wednesday reported fiscal third-quarter profit of $289 million.
The Fort Worth-based company said it had profit of 76 cents per share.
The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 18 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 75 cents per share.
The homebuilder posted revenue of $3.78 billion in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Seventeen analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $3.71 billion. That was up from $3.1 billion in the same quarter of fiscal 2016. Homes closed in the quarter increased 16 percent to 12,497 homes compared to 10,739 homes in the prior year quarter.
The now Arlington-based homebuilder reported that net income for its third fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2017 increased 16 percent to $289.0 million, or $0.76 per diluted share, from $249.8 million, or $0.66 per diluted share, in the same quarter of fiscal 2016. Homebuilding revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2017 increased 17 percent to $3.7 billion
“The D.R. Horton team is producing strong results in fiscal 2017. In the third quarter, our consolidated pre-tax income increased 17 percent to $444.5 million on $3.8 billion of revenues, and the value of our net sales orders increased 13 percent,” said Donald R. Horton, chairman. “For the nine months ended June 30, 2017, our consolidated pre-tax income, homebuilding revenues and homes closed increased 21 percent, 18 percent and 16 percent%, respectively, and our pre-tax profit margin improved 30 basis points to 11.2 percent. These results reflect the strength of our experienced operational teams, diverse product offerings from our family of brands and solid market conditions across our broad national footprint.”
The company’s sales order backlog of homes under contract at June 30, 2017 increased 3 percent to 15,161 homes and 6 percent in value to $4.6 billion compared to 14,670 homes and $4.4 billion at June 30, 2016. The company’s homes in inventory at June 30, 2017 increased 9 percent to 27,600 homes compared to 25,300 homes at June 30, 2016.
“We remain focused on growing our revenues and pre-tax profits at a double-digit annual pace, while continuing to generate positive annual operating cash flows and improved returns,” said Horton. “With 27,600 homes in inventory at the end of June and a robust supply of owned and controlled lots, we are well-positioned for the fourth quarter and fiscal 2018.”_____
D.R. Horton shares have risen 35 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has climbed 11 percent. The stock has increased nearly 10 percent in the last 12 months.
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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on DHI at https://www.zacks.com/ap/DHI. The Fort Worth Business Press contributed to this report.