Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Lennar (NYSE:LEN)

Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders acquired 13,763 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 44% compared to the typical daily volume of 9,578 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on LEN shares. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Lennar from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Lennar from $79.00 to $70.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Benchmark raised Lennar to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Lennar from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Finally, Seaport Research Partners reduced their price target on Lennar from $74.00 to $70.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and eleven have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Strong Sell” and an average target price of $78.87.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired 1,708,095 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 2nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $79.44 per share, for a total transaction of $135,691,066.80. Following the transaction, the insider owned 28,438,045 shares in the company, valued at $2,259,118,294.80. This represents a 6.39% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 7,502,276 shares of company stock valued at $595,303,287. Company insiders own 10.05% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lennar

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Lennar by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,546,970 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $221,176,000 after purchasing an additional 419,745 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Lennar by 21.1% during the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 859,286 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $70,109,000 after buying an additional 149,934 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its position in Lennar by 4.8% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 601,468 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $52,231,000 after buying an additional 27,500 shares in the last quarter. Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd. increased its position in Lennar by 6,292.5% during the second quarter. Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd. now owns 328,000 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $29,681,000 after buying an additional 322,869 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Lennar by 2.3% in the first quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 313,354 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $27,212,000 after acquiring an additional 7,103 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.10% of the company’s stock.

Lennar Price Performance

LEN traded down $1.96 on Wednesday, hitting $84.70. 1,510,287 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,296,506. Lennar has a fifty-two week low of $71.78 and a fifty-two week high of $133.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 4.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 1.36. The business’s fifty day moving average is $81.53 and its 200 day moving average is $90.57.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 16th. The construction company reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.29 by ($0.06). Lennar had a return on equity of 6.15% and a net margin of 4.09%. The firm had revenue of $8.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.32 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.00 EPS. Lennar’s revenue was down 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Lennar will post 4.86 EPS for the current year.

Lennar Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 7th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 7th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Lennar’s payout ratio is presently 37.81%.

About Lennar

Lennar Corporation is a U.S. homebuilder that designs, builds and sells homes in communities across many major housing markets in the country. Its offerings include single-family homes and townhomes, with options and designs aimed at a range of homebuyers. The company also provides services that support home purchases, including mortgage financing and title and closing services. Lennar traces its roots to a homebuilding business founded in Miami in 1954 and has expanded its operations across the United States.