Why Beazer Homes Stock Rallied 15% Today
Shares of Beazer Homes (NYSE: BZH), one of the largest homebuilders in the United States, rose by as much as 18% on Thursday. By the close, they had given back some of those gains, but were still up by roughly 15%. The big news was the company's fiscal fourth-quarter 2021 earnings release, which hit the newswires after the market closed on Wednesday.
Beazer's fourth-quarter and full-year results were a bit mixed. For example, Q4 revenue of $589.1 million was 13.2% below the year-ago level. Driving that was a 19% decline in home closings, partially offset by a 7.1% increase in home prices. For the full fiscal year, revenues were basically flat (up 0.5%) with a 4.4% increase in home prices offsetting a 3.7% decline in the number of closings. Fewer homes sold at higher prices isn't exactly the best outcome, but it isn't terrible, either.
That said, earnings per share for the quarter came in at $1.57, up notably from $0.82 in the prior-year period. The improvement was partially thanks to cost containment efforts and, more importantly, a 1.5 percentage point increase in homebuilding gross margins. For the full fiscal year, meanwhile, Beazer earned $4.01 per share, up from $1.78, with the help of a 2 percentage point improvement in homebuilding gross margins.
Source Fool.com
