DR Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI) short interest rose 12.4% in September

DR Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI – Get Free Report ) saw a large increase in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totaling 5,510,000 shares, up 12.4% from August 31st’s total of 4,900,000 shares. Currently, 1.9% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,510,000 shares, the short interest rate is currently 2.2 days.

Institutional investors weigh in on DR Horton

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in DR Horton by 7.6% in 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 during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management SA boosted its holdings in shares of DR Horton by 1,761.6% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management SA now owns 1,043,909 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $147,118,000 after purchasing an additional 987,834 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in DR Horton by 51.2% during the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,657,028 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $233,525,000 after buying an additional 561,337 shares during the period. Long Pond Capital LP lifted its position in DR Horton by 438.6% in the first quarter. Long Pond Capital LP now owns 659,761 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $108,564,000 after acquiring an additional 537,276 shares during the period. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its holdings in DR Horton by 62.4% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,367,704 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $207,864,000 after purchasing an additional 525,705 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.63% of the company’s shares.

DR Horton Stock Performance

NYSE:DHI traded up $2.34 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $190.35. 1,550,687 shares of the company exchanged hands, compared to its average volume of 2,485,805. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 7.22, and a quick ratio of 1.30. DR Horton has a 52-week low of $100.08 and a 52-week high of $199.85. The stock has a market cap of $62.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.96, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.73. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $183.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $160.69.

DR Horton (NYSE:DHI – Get Your Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The construction company reported $4.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.75 by $0.35. DR Horton had a net margin of 13.36% and a return on equity of 20.72%. The firm had revenue of $9.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.61 billion. In the same period last year, the company earned $3.90 per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that DR Horton will post 14.03 earnings per share for the current year.

DR Horton announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, July 18th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the construction company to buy up to 6.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

DR Horton announces dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a $0.30 dividend. This represents a dividend of $1.20 on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. DR Horton’s dividend yield is currently 8.17%.

Analyst upgrades and downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of DR Horton from $200.00 to $217.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Barclays raised their target price on DR Horton from $168.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th. Bank of America upped their price target on DR Horton from $196.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on DR Horton from $141.00 to $154.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of DR Horton from $178.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd . Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. DR Horton presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $183.33, based on data from MarketBeat.

Read our latest review of DR Horton

About Dr. Horton

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DR Horton, Inc operates as a homebuilder in the Eastern, Northern, Southeast, South Central, Southwest and Northwest regions of the United States. Engages in land acquisition and development; and building and selling residential homes in 118 markets in 33 states under the DR name

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