Look At Analyst Expectations For A Better Read On KB Home (NYSE: KBH)

The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in KB Home (NYSE:KBH). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Consumer Cyclical company by 0.78% to 7.54 million shares with purchase of 58490.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 9.14% valued currently at $330.49 million. In addition, Fidelity Management & Research Co raised its holdings by 1.26 million to 6.14 million shares. And SSgA Funds Management, Inc. has lifted its position by 2.33% or 63362.0 shares – to 2.79 million shares.

With over 1.64 million KB Home (KBH) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $42.79 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $70.13 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 42.59% and its price on 05/23/23 lost nearly -3.15%. Currently, there are 83.47M common shares owned by the public and among those 69.52M shares have been available to trade.

An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 15 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for KBH have a consensus price objective of $43.32. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $55.00 and a low of $29.00. The average price target is 2.55% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -47.55% over that period. But an upside of 22.2% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $42.50.

Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 16 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 8 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 539,577 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 8 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 249,608 shares.

The top 3 mutual fund holders in KB Home are Fidelity Small Cap Value Fund, American Funds Small Cap World Fu, and iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF. Fidelity Small Cap Value Fund owns 3.06 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $134.31 million. iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF bought 12643.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 2.55 million shares at a value of $111.62 million. iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF now owns shares totaling to 3.09% of the shares outstanding.

Shares of KB Home (NYSE: KBH) opened at $43.81, down -$0.37 from a prior closing price of $44.18. However, the script later moved the day high at 43.81, down -3.15%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -6.18% and 23.07% over the past three months. KBH shares are trading 34.35% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 29.59% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $24.78 and touched a high of $46.91 over the same period. KBH has an average intraday trading volume of 1.70 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -3.61%, 4.09%, and 25.76% respectively.

Institutional ownership of KB Home (NYSE: KBH) shares accounts for 92.40% of the company’s 83.47M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 58.06%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 8.37% and 39.03% respectively.

It has a market capitalization of $3.61B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.60. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 4.68, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $9.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio at 0.48. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.47% over the week and 2.40% over the month.

Analysts forecast that KB Home (KBH) will achieve an EPS of $1.31 for the current quarter, $1.31 for the next quarter and $5.6 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.09 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.47. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $2.32 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 51.40%, and 1.54% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of -11.90% over the next five years, compared to 37.50% over the past 5-year period.

If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 15 brokerage firm advisors rate KB Home (KBH) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.70. Specifically, 4 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 9 of the 15 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”