Lennar Reports First Quarter 2024 Results

First Quarter 2024 Highlights - comparisons to the prior year quarter

• Net earnings per diluted share increased 25% to $2.57
• Net earnings increased 21% to $719 million
• New orders increased 28% to 18,176 homes; new orders dollar value increased 21% to $7.7 billion
• Backlog of 16,270 homes with a dollar value of $7.4 billion
• Deliveries increased 23% to 16,798 homes
• Total revenues increased 13% to $7.3 billion
• Homebuilding operating earnings of $1.0 billion
  • Gross margin on home sales of 21.8%
  • S,G&A expenses as a % of revenues from home sales of 8.2%
  • Net margin on home sales of 13.6%
• Financial Services operating earnings of $131 million
• Multifamily operating loss of $16 million
• Lennar Other operating loss of $40 million
• Homebuilding cash and cash equivalents of $5.0 billion
• Years supply of owned homesites of 1.3 years and controlled homesites of 77%
• No outstanding borrowings under the Company's $2.6 billion revolving credit facility
• Homebuilding debt to total capital of 9.6%
• Repurchased 3.4 million shares of Lennar common stock for $506 million
• Increased stock repurchase program up to an additional $5.0 billion
• Increased annual dividend from $1.50 per share to $2.00 per share

MIAMI, March 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN), one of the nation's leading homebuilders, today reported results for its first quarter ended February 29, 2024. First quarter net earnings attributable to Lennar in 2024 were $719 million, or $2.57 per diluted share, compared to first quarter net earnings attributable to Lennar in 2023 of $597 million, or $2.06 per diluted share.

Stuart Miller, Executive Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Lennar, said, "We are pleased to report another strong quarter as we remained focused on consistent production pace driving sales pace, while using pricing, incentives, marketing spend, and margin informed by dynamic pricing to enable consistent sales volume in a fluctuating interest rate environment. Although affordability continued to be tested by interest rate movements, purchasers remained responsive to increased sales incentives, resulting in a 28% increase in our new orders and a 23% increase in our deliveries year over year."

"The macroeconomic environment remained relatively consistent throughout our first quarter, with interest rates fluctuating within a manageable range, employment remaining strong, housing supply remaining chronically short due to production deficits over a decade, and demand strength driven by strong household formation. Housing market fundamentals remained strong as demand continued to outweigh supply. These conditions remained constructive for our overall operating strategy of focusing on production and sales pace over price while growing market share."

"Earnings were $719 million, or $2.57 per diluted share, compared to $597 million, or $2.06 per diluted share last year. We delivered 16,798 homes in our first quarter and our new orders were 18,176, up 28%, year over year. Our average sales price, net of incentives, per home delivered was $413,000 in the first quarter, down 8% from last year, and our homebuilding gross margin in the first quarter was 21.8%, up 60 basis points from last year, as a result of our careful management of incentives combined with our intense focus on reducing construction costs, while homebuilding S,G&A expenses were 8.2%, resulting in a 13.6% net margin."

"Driven by this quarter's strong operating performance, we constructively allocated capital while we continued to strengthen and fortify our balance sheet. During the quarter, we repurchased $506 million of our common stock, ending the quarter with homebuilding debt to total capital of 9.6%, no borrowings on our $2.6 billion revolver and cash of $5.0 billion. With cash on hand exceeding our debt, and with overall liquidity of $7.6 billion, our balance sheet remains extremely strong. Against that backdrop, we remain focused on our "land strategies" initiatives in order to intensify our land light focus and assure consistency of execution now and in the future as we embrace an ever-more focused manufacturing model for Lennar."

Jon Jaffe, Co-Chief Executive Officer and President of Lennar, said, "Operationally, both our starts pace and sales pace were 4.9 homes per community in the first quarter, as we continue to move closer to an even flow operating model. Our cycle time was down to 154 days, or 30% year over year, as our production first focus has positively impacted our production times, while our inventory turn improved to 1.5 times reflecting broader efficiencies. Concurrently, the Lennar Machine continued to carefully match our sales pace to our production pace using our digital marketing and dynamic pricing models."

"During the quarter, we continued the execution of our land light strategy. This was evidenced by our years supply of owned homesites improving to 1.3 years from 1.9 years last year and our controlled homesite percentage increasing to 77% from 68% year over year. These results drove our return on inventory to 30.5%, a sequential improvement of 110 basis points."

Mr. Miller concluded, "We continue to remain enthusiastic about our current execution and our future. We have remained focused on our operating strategies, while at the same time being observant of current economic and market trends. This has positioned us particularly well as the economic environment continues to define itself throughout the complicated election year in 2024. As we look ahead to our second quarter, we expect to deliver between 19,000 and 19,500 homes with a gross margin of approximately 22.5%. We remain focused on delivering 80,000 homes for the full year, with a margin that remains consistent with last year's margin. We will continue to fortify our balance sheet with significant liquidity and operate from a position of strength, thus enabling us to continue to execute on our core strategies to drive strong cash flow and higher returns."

 

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

THREE MONTHS ENDED FEBRUARY 29, 2024 COMPARED TO

THREE MONTHS ENDED FEBRUARY 28, 2023

Homebuilding

Revenues from home sales increased 13% in the first quarter of 2024 to $6.9 billion from $6.1 billion in the first quarter of 2023. Revenues were higher primarily due to a 23% increase in the number of home deliveries, partially offset by an 8% decrease in the average sales price of homes delivered. New home deliveries increased to 16,798 homes in the first quarter of 2024 from 13,659 homes in the first quarter of 2023. The average sales price of homes delivered was $413,000 in the first quarter of 2024, compared to $448,000 in the first quarter of 2023. The decrease in average sales price of homes delivered in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period last year was primarily due to pricing to market through an increased use of incentives and product mix.

Gross margins on home sales were $1.5 billion, or 21.8%, in the first quarter of 2024, compared to $1.3 billion, or 21.2%, in the first quarter of 2023. During the first quarter of 2024, gross margins increased because of a decrease in costs per square foot as the Company continued to focus on construction cost savings, which was partially offset by a decrease in average sales price and an increase in land costs.

Selling, general and administrative expenses were $568 million in the first quarter of 2024, compared to $450 million in the first quarter of 2023. As a percentage of revenues from home sales, selling, general and administrative expenses increased to 8.2% in the first quarter of 2024, from 7.4% in the first quarter of 2023, primarily due to an increase in the use of brokers due to current market conditions and an increase in digital marketing and advertising costs to generate more direct sales.

Financial Services

Operating earnings for the Financial Services segment were $131 million in the first quarter of 2024, compared to $78 million in the first quarter of 2023. The increase in operating earnings was primarily due to a higher profit per locked loan in the Company's mortgage business as a result of higher margins, and higher lock volume because of increased capture rate and Lennar deliveries. There was also an increase in profitability from the Company's title business due to higher volume and productivity as a result of continued implementation of technology initiatives.

Other Ancillary Businesses

Operating loss for the Multifamily segment was $16 million in the first quarter of 2024, compared to operating loss of $22 million in the first quarter of 2023. Operating loss for the Lennar Other segment was $40 million in the first quarter of 2024, compared to an operating loss of $41 million in the first quarter of 2023.

Tax Rate

In the first quarter of 2024 and 2023, the Company had tax provisions of $211 million and $185 million, respectively, which resulted in an overall effective income tax rate of 22.7% and 23.7%, respectively. In the first quarter of 2024, the Company's overall effective income tax rate was lower than last year, primarily due to tax benefits from share-based compensation.

Share Repurchases

In the first quarter of 2024, the Company repurchased 3.4 million shares of its common stock for $506 million at an average share price of $148.95.

Liquidity

At February 29, 2024, the Company had $5.0 billion of Homebuilding cash and cash equivalents and no outstanding borrowings under its $2.6 billion revolving credit facility, thereby providing approximately $7.6 billion of available capacity.

Guidance

The following are the Company's expected results of its homebuilding and financial services activities for the second quarter of 2024:

 

About Lennar

Lennar Corporation, founded in 1954, is one of the nation's leading builders of quality homes for all generations. Lennar builds affordable, move-up and active adult homes primarily under the Lennar brand name. Lennar's Financial Services segment provides mortgage financing, title and closing services primarily for buyers of Lennar's homes and, through LMF Commercial, originates mortgage loans secured primarily by commercial real estate properties throughout the United States. Lennar's Multifamily segment is a nationwide developer of high-quality multifamily rental properties. LEN^X drives Lennar's technology, innovation and strategic investments. For more information about Lennar, please visit www.lennar.com.

 

Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Some of the statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements," as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements relating to the homebuilding market and other markets in which we participate. You can identify forward-looking statements by the fact that these statements do not relate strictly to historical or current matters. Rather, forward-looking statements relate to anticipated or expected events, activities, trends or results. Accordingly, these forward-looking statements should be evaluated with consideration given to the many risks and uncertainties inherent in our business that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements. We wish to caution readers not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement and speak only as of the date made. Important factors that could cause differences between anticipated and actual results include slowdowns in real estate markets in regions where we have significant Homebuilding or Multifamily development activities or own a substantial number of single-family homes for rent; decreased demand for our homes, either for sale or for rent, or Multifamily rental apartments; the potential impact of inflation; the impact of increased cost of mortgage financing for homebuyers, increased interest rates or increased competition in the mortgage industry; supply shortages and increased costs related to construction materials, including lumber, and labor; cost increases related to real estate taxes and insurance; the effect of increased interest rates with regard to our funds' borrowings on the willingness of the funds to invest in new projects; reductions in the market value of our investments in public companies; natural disasters or catastrophic events for which our insurance may not provide adequate coverage; our inability to successfully execute our strategies, including our land light strategy, and our planned spin-off of certain businesses; a decline in the value of the land and home inventories we maintain and resulting possible future writedowns of the carrying value of our real estate assets; the forfeiture of deposits related to land purchase options we decide not to exercise; the effects of public health issues such as a major epidemic or pandemic that could have a negative impact on the economy and on our businesses; possible unfavorable results in legal proceedings; conditions in the capital, credit and financial markets; changes in laws, regulations or the regulatory environment affecting our business, and the other risks and uncertainties described in our filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those included under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

A conference call to discuss the Company's first quarter earnings will be held at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, March 14, 2024. The call will be broadcast live on the Internet and can be accessed through the Company's website at investors.lennar.com. If you are unable to participate in the conference call, the call will be archived at investors.lennar.com for 90 days. A replay of the conference call will also be available later that day by calling 203-369-3032 and entering 5723593 as the confirmation number.

 

 

 

Lennar's reportable homebuilding segments and all other homebuilding operations not required to be reported separately have divisions located in:

East: Alabama, Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania

Central: Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia

Texas: Texas

West: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington

Other: Urban divisions

Of the total homes delivered listed above, 77 homes with a dollar value of $43 million and an average sales price of $558,000 represent home deliveries from unconsolidated entities for the three months ended February 29, 2024, compared to 63 home deliveries with a dollar value of $32 million and an average sales price of $503,000 for the three months ended February 28, 2023.

Of the total homes listed above, 46 homes with a dollar value of $25 million and an average sales price of $548,000 represent homes in six active communities from unconsolidated entities for the three months ended February 29, 2024, compared to 97 homes with a dollar value of $38 million and an average sales price of $394,000 in seven active communities for the three months ended February 28, 2023.

Of the total homes in backlog listed above, 116 homes with a backlog dollar value of $57 million and an average sales price of $495,000 represent the backlog from unconsolidated entities at February 29, 2024, compared to 200 homes with a backlog dollar value of $84 million and an average sales price of $422,000 at February 28, 2023.

 

 

 

 

Contact:

Ian Frazer

Investor Relations

Lennar Corporation

(305) 485-4129

 

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SOURCE Lennar Corporation