ATLANTA (AP) – PulteGroup’s third-quarter profit climbed as the homebuilder delivered more homes at higher prices amid the continued recovery of the housing market.
The earnings report Thursday came a day after the Commerce Department said that construction of single-family homes climbed 8.1 percent in September. Home construction has been one of the bright spots in the economy this year. Builders have been scrambling to keep up with rising demand amid continued strong job gains and low mortgage rates.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, PulteGroup Inc. earned $128.5 million, or 37 cents per share. A year ago the Atlanta-based company earned $107.8 million, or 30 cents per share.
Earnings, adjusted for one-time costs, were 43 cents per share.
That met the expectations of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.
Revenue rose to $1.94 billion from $1.51 billion. Analysts surveyed by Zacks predicted $1.95 billion in revenue.
Home deliveries increased 16 percent to 5,037 homes. The average selling price rose 11 percent to $374,000. New orders climbed 17 percent to 4,775 homes.
Nonetheless, its shares dropped 95 cents, or 4.7 percent, to $18.93 in morning trading. Its shares are down almost 3 percent from a year ago.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on PHM at http://www.zacks.com/ap/PHM
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Keywords: PulteGroup, Earnings Report