Pulte cites housing shortage boost, shares rise

By Steve Gelsi

Home builder beats estimates and grows its backlog to $8 billion

PulteGroup Inc.'s stock rose Tuesday after the home builder beat its first-quarter earnings estimate and said it sees an opportunity to benefit from U.S. housing demand.

PulteGroup (PHM) Chief Executive Ryan Marshall said the U.S. now faces a structural shortage of "several million homes" after more than a decade of overbuilding.

"We are well positioned to expand our market share while helping to provide much needed new housing stock," Marshall said.

The company's stronger-than-expected first-quarter profit "reflects both favorable demand conditions and its ability to "more effectively meet the individual needs of first-time, move-up and active-adult consumers."

PulteGroup said its first-quarter profit for the three months ending March 31 rose to $662.98 million, or $3.10 a share, from $532.26 million, or $2.35 a share, in the year-ago quarter.

Breaking out one-time items, PulteGroup earned $2.87 a share, well ahead of the FactSet consensus estimate of $2.36 a share.

First-quarter revenue at the Atlanta-based company rose to $3.95 billion from $3.58 billion in the year-ago period, and came in well ahead of the $3.58 billion analyst estimate.

Pulte Group's stock rose by 0.3% in morning trades.

The company also said its backlog rose to 13,430 homes with a value of $8.2 billion at the end of the quarter, up from 13,129 homes with a value of $7.98 billion in the year-ago period.

First-quarter net new orders rose by 14% to 8,379 homes.

PulteGroup operated from an average of 931 communities, up 6% over 879 communities in the year-ago quarter.

Prior to Tuesday's trades, PulteGroup's stock was up by 4.5% in 2024, compared to a rise of 5.1% by the S&P 500 SPX.

Also read: No more 6%? Home buyers and sellers will soon negotiate their own commissions with agents.

-Steve Gelsi

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04-23-24 0942ET

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