PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM) to Repurchase $1.50 billion in Outstanding Shares

PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM) declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, January 30th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the construction company to reacquire up to 6.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PHM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com cut PulteGroup from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Wedbush upgraded PulteGroup from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $135.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group upgraded shares of PulteGroup from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price target for the company from $154.00 to $148.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on shares of PulteGroup from $168.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of PulteGroup from $162.00 to $155.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, PulteGroup presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $142.29.

PulteGroup Stock Up 4.8 %

Shares of NYSE PHM traded up $5.48 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $118.47. The company had a trading volume of 3,734,440 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,197,820. The company has a market capitalization of $24.30 billion, a PE ratio of 8.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.67. PulteGroup has a one year low of $100.24 and a one year high of $149.47. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $118.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $127.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The construction company reported $3.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.28 by $0.22. PulteGroup had a net margin of 16.64% and a return on equity of 25.30%. On average, equities analysts expect that PulteGroup will post 12.96 EPS for the current year.

PulteGroup Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from PulteGroup’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. PulteGroup’s dividend payout ratio is 6.49%.

About PulteGroup

PulteGroup, Inc, through its subsidiaries, primarily engages in the homebuilding business in the United States. It acquires and develops land primarily for residential purposes; and constructs housing on such land. The company also offers various home designs, including single-family detached, townhomes, condominiums, and duplexes under the Centex, Pulte Homes, Del Webb, DiVosta Homes, John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods, and American West brand names.