Short Interest in D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI) Drops By 7.4%

D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,900,000 shares, a decline of 7.4% from the August 15th total of 5,290,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,510,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.0 days. Currently, 1.7% of the company’s shares are sold short.

D.R. Horton Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DHI traded up $1.98 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $196.17. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 660,315 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,476,659. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 7.22. D.R. Horton has a fifty-two week low of $100.08 and a fifty-two week high of $199.85. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $179.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $158.81. The company has a market cap of $64.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.22, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.73.

D.R. Horton (NYSE:DHI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The construction company reported $4.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.75 by $0.35. D.R. Horton had a net margin of 13.36% and a return on equity of 20.72%. The company had revenue of $9.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.61 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.90 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that D.R. Horton will post 14.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

D.R. Horton declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, July 18th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the construction company to repurchase up to 6.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

D.R. Horton Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.61%. D.R. Horton’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.17%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DHI. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of D.R. Horton by 7.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,856,397 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $5,735,620,000 after buying an additional 2,474,262 shares in the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. boosted its position in D.R. Horton by 2.3% during the second quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 3,669,893 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $517,198,000 after acquiring an additional 81,900 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in D.R. Horton during the fourth quarter valued at $516,530,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in D.R. Horton by 12.5% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,345,398 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $356,454,000 after acquiring an additional 260,864 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC boosted its position in D.R. Horton by 0.4% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,064,149 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $290,901,000 after acquiring an additional 9,137 shares during the last quarter. 90.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on DHI. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of D.R. Horton from $168.00 to $196.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of D.R. Horton from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of D.R. Horton from $178.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of D.R. Horton from $168.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of D.R. Horton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $182.07.

About D.R. Horton

D.R. Horton, Inc operates as a homebuilding company in East, North, Southeast, South Central, Southwest, and Northwest regions in the United States. It engages in the acquisition and development of land; and construction and sale of residential homes in 118 markets across 33 states under the names of D.R.