PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM – Get Rating) in a research report released on Thursday morning. The firm issued a buy rating on the construction company’s stock.

PHM has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Oppenheimer raised their price target on PulteGroup from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 1st. Barclays raised their price target on PulteGroup from $58.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Sunday, February 5th. Citigroup raised their price target on PulteGroup from $56.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, February 2nd. KeyCorp raised their price target on PulteGroup from $51.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, Credit Suisse Group raised their price target on PulteGroup from $52.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $61.69.

PulteGroup Trading Down 0.7 %

PHM opened at $55.42 on Thursday. PulteGroup has a one year low of $35.03 and a one year high of $60.89. The company has a market cap of $12.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.99, a PEG ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.62. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $53.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.08.

PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 31st. The construction company reported $3.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.88 by $0.75. PulteGroup had a return on equity of 31.85% and a net margin of 16.13%. The business had revenue of $5.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.59 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.51 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that PulteGroup will post 7.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PulteGroup Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 20th will be issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 17th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.15%. PulteGroup’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.77%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Todd N. Sheldon sold 15,998 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.83, for a total value of $861,172.34. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 82,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,432,308.37. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Todd N. Sheldon sold 15,998 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.83, for a total value of $861,172.34. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 82,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,432,308.37. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Brien P. O’meara sold 4,924 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $295,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,038,480. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,739 shares of company stock valued at $2,845,149 in the last three months. 0.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PulteGroup

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in PulteGroup by 24.4% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 728,006 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $27,300,000 after purchasing an additional 142,668 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings in PulteGroup by 24.0% during the third quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 174,838 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $6,556,000 after purchasing an additional 33,834 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its holdings in PulteGroup by 71.0% during the third quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 41,567 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,559,000 after purchasing an additional 17,264 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in PulteGroup by 40.6% during the third quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 45,922 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,723,000 after purchasing an additional 13,256 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its holdings in PulteGroup by 19.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 35,718 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,416,000 after purchasing an additional 5,826 shares during the last quarter. 88.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

PulteGroup Company Profile

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PulteGroup, Inc engages in the homebuilding business. The firm is also involved in mortgage banking and title and insurance brokerage operations. It operates through the Homebuilding and Financial services business segments. The Homebuilding segment includes operations from Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Washington.