Ballentine Partners LLC Has $445,000 Stock Position in Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN)

Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,261 shares of the construction company’s stock after acquiring an additional 114 shares during the quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Lennar were worth $445,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in Lennar by 1.3% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 5,903,555 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,106,798,000 after purchasing an additional 73,638 shares in the last quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lennar by 3.5% in the third quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,666,905 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $499,991,000 after acquiring an additional 89,896 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Lennar by 21.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,250,626 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $308,696,000 after acquiring an additional 397,492 shares in the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY boosted its position in Lennar by 2.6% during the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 711,023 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $133,303,000 after purchasing an additional 17,834 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its stake in Lennar by 0.5% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 691,910 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $129,719,000 after purchasing an additional 3,130 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on LEN shares. BTIG Research lowered Lennar from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Lennar from $205.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Lennar from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 28th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Lennar from $196.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $164.00 price target on shares of Lennar in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.50.

Lennar Stock Performance

NYSE LEN opened at $134.45 on Friday. Lennar Co. has a twelve month low of $128.41 and a twelve month high of $193.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 4.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market cap of $36.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.38, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.66. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $151.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $167.19.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The construction company reported $4.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.15 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $9.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.06 billion. Lennar had a net margin of 11.10% and a return on equity of 13.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $4.82 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Lennar Co. will post 13.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lennar Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 29th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. Lennar’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.95%.

Insider Transactions at Lennar

In other Lennar news, Director Jeffrey Sonnenfeld sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.13, for a total value of $3,064,775.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,689 shares in the company, valued at $4,148,654.57. The trade was a 42.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 9.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Lennar Company Profile

Lennar Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a homebuilder primarily under the Lennar brand in the United States. It operates through Homebuilding East, Homebuilding Central, Homebuilding Texas, Homebuilding West, Financial Services, Multifamily, and Lennar Other segments. The company’s homebuilding operations include the construction and sale of single-family attached and detached homes, as well as the purchase, development, and sale of residential land; and development, construction, and management of multifamily rental properties.