KB Home, Lennar Post Profit Gains

KB Home and Lennar Corp., two of the nation’s largest home builders, on Thursday posted higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on the strength of rising sales volume and prices.

Westwood-based KB Home said net income rose 66% to $310.6 million, or $3.51 a share, in its fiscal fourth quarter from $186.7 million, or $2.21, a year earlier.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected earnings of $3.34 a share.

Revenue rose 32% to $3.15 billion in the three months ended Nov. 30 from $2.38 billion from a year earlier.

“We extended our trend of strong, consistent financial performance in the fourth quarter of 2005 and completed another successful year, delivering 37,140 homes and posting revenues approaching $10 billion,” KB Home Chief Executive Bruce Karatz said in a statement.

The company offered a 2006 earnings forecast of $11.25 a share.

KB Home said housing deliveries for the quarter increased 16.1% to 11,946 homes. KB Home’s average unit selling price also rose, to $262,700, up 14.6%.

KB Home’s order backlog at the close of the fourth quarter stood at 25,722 homes, a revenue value of about $6.76 billion.

For the fiscal year, KB earned $842.4 million, or $9.53 a share, up 67% from $480.9 million, or $5.70, in fiscal 2004. Revenue rose 34% to $9.44 billion.

Wall Street had expected the company to post earnings of $9.36 a share for the fiscal year, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

KB Home operates in several states, including California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Georgia. A subsidiary of the company builds homes in France. The company also offers mortgage services through a joint venture with Countrywide Financial Corp.

Shares of KB Home rose 9 cents to $73.94 in regular trading Thursday, then jumped $1.88 to $75.82 after hours.

At Miami-based Lennar, earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Nov. 30 totaled $581.2 million, or $3.54 a share, up 53% from $379.7 million, or $2.29, a year earlier. Revenue increased 42% to $5.03 billion from $3.55 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected earnings of $3.34 a share on $4.96 billion in revenue.

Analysts have predicted that the home-building market will cool off soon after years of growth. But Stuart Miller, Lennar’s president and chief executive, said that despite “signs nationally of a more normalized level of activity with regards to sales pace and price appreciation,” Lennar was poised for future success because of a strong balance sheet, a large backlog of orders and investments in growing markets.

For the fiscal year, the company’s profit climbed to $1.36 billion, or $8.23 a share, from $945.6 million, or $5.70, last year. Revenue rose to $13.87 billion from $10.5 billion.

Lennar shares rose $2.03 to $62.61 on Thursday.