(Reuters) - Toll Brothers Inc (N:TOL), the largest U.S. luxury homebuilder, reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit and raised the low end of its full-year home delivery forecast as housing demand strengthened.
The company said it now expects to deliver 5,200 to 6,000 homes in 2015 at an average price of $725,000-$760,000. It had earlier forecast deliveries of 5,000 to 6,000 homes at $710,000-$760,000.
The company also slightly raised its gross margin expectation for the year to 26 percent. It reported gross margin of 25.3 percent for 2014 and forecast flat margins for the current year.
"More jobs and better jobs should boost household formations and provide a basis for stronger housing demand," Executive Chairman Robert Toll said.
U.S. construction on new homes rose 18.7 percent to a 1.07 million-unit annual pace in January, compared with a year earlier, the Commerce Department's data showed.
Housing starts have now been above the 1 million-unit mark for five straight months.
The number of homes Toll finished jumped 18 percent to 1,091 in the first quarter ended Jan. 31, while the average selling price rose 13 percent to $782,300, the company said.
The company's net income rose 78 percent to $81.3 million, or 44 cents per share, from a year earlier.
Total revenue rose 33 percent to $853.5 million.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of 30 cents per share on revenue $781 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Up to Monday's close of $37.10, Toll's stock had fallen about 3 percent in the past 12 months, while the Dow Jones U.S. home construction index (DJUSHB) increased about 11 percent.