By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – DR Horton stock (NYSE:DHI) traded 3.4% higher in premarket Wednesday as high property prices and benign interest rates helped it leave first-quarter estimates comfortably behind.
Consolidated revenue rose 19% to exceed $7 billion in the first quarter as the company sold more homes and notched up a higher order backlog.
Adjusted profit per share rose 48% to $3.17 on better margins.
Net sales orders increased 29% in value to $8.3 billion on 21,522 homes sold. Its order backlog of homes under contract at the end of the quarter rose by 3% in absolute terms to 29,347 homes and by 24% in value to $11 billion.
U.S. homebuilding rose to a nine-month high in December thanks to a surge in multi-family housing projects, Reuters said last month. New home sales were 12% higher at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 811,000 units in December, the highest level since March, the U.S. Commerce Department said last week.
As the economy expanded last year and working from home went mainstream, more people looked for permanent, bigger and more suitable housing. Attractive interest rates also fueled buyers' appetite.
During the first quarter, the company sold one multi-family rental property comprising 350 units. There was no such sale in the corresponding quarter last year.
The company’s financial year runs through September and it now expects to close the year with consolidated revenue of $35 billion at the midpoint of its guidance range, $2 billion more than the previous estimate.