Paloma Partners Management Co Acquires Shares of 7,485 KB Home (NYSE:KBH)

Paloma Partners Management Co bought a new position in shares of KB Home (NYSE:KBH) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 7,485 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $531,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in KBH. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its stake in shares of KB Home by 2,728.9% during the first quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 642,869 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $45,567,000 after purchasing an additional 620,144 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of KB Home during the fourth quarter worth approximately $36,761,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of KB Home by 123.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 201,682 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $12,597,000 after purchasing an additional 111,474 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of KB Home by 94.6% during the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 129,409 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $8,083,000 after purchasing an additional 62,897 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of KB Home by 15,718.8% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 63,275 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $4,481,000 after purchasing an additional 62,875 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on KBH. Evercore ISI increased their target price on KB Home from $86.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on KB Home from $74.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Zelman & Associates reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $69.00 price target on shares of KB Home in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on KB Home from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded KB Home from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.88.

KB Home Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of KBH stock traded up $1.26 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $85.02. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,269,517 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,282,657. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $67.53. The company has a market capitalization of $6.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.25, a PEG ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.80. KB Home has a fifty-two week low of $42.11 and a fifty-two week high of $85.39.

KB Home (NYSE:KBH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 18th. The construction company reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.37. KB Home had a return on equity of 15.66% and a net margin of 9.43%. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that KB Home will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current year.

KB Home Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 8th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 8th. KB Home’s payout ratio is 13.23%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Thomas W. Gilligan sold 3,914 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.48, for a total value of $275,858.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 48,217 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,398,334.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Albert Z. Praw sold 22,160 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.11, for a total transaction of $1,553,637.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,512 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,500,746.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas W. Gilligan sold 3,914 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.48, for a total value of $275,858.72. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 48,217 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,398,334.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

KB Home Company Profile

KB Home operates as a homebuilding company in the United States. It operates through four segments: West Coast, Southwest, Central, and Southeast. It builds and sells various homes, including attached and detached single-family residential homes, townhomes, and condominiums primarily for first-time, first move-up, second move-up, and active adult homebuyers.