On Thursday, Omaha-based ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) reported profit growth in the fourth quarter due in part to contributions from its commodity trading unit, which the company just sold. Also, homebuilder Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) said its fiscal second-quarter loss narrowed, despite writedowns and a hefty drop in revenues.
ConAgra said earnings grew almost 5% from the year-ago period to $201 million, or 41 cents per share, including 23 cents per share from discontinued operations. The company also said revenue rose 15% to $3.08 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected earnings for the quarter ended May 25 to be 34 cents per share on revenue of $3.4 billion.
ConAgra guided earnings to between 26 cents and 28 cents per share in the first quarter, and $1.56 and $1.59 per share for fiscal 2009. Analysts are predicting earnings per share of 33 cents per share in the first quarter, as well as $1.60 for the year.
ConAgra shares fell $1.23, or 5.6%, to $20.92 in trading Thursday. Shares have fallen 4.0% in the past three months.
U.S. stock futures were lower early Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve announced rates will be kept steady. Investors this morning are mostly concerned about financials following Goldman Sachs downgrades of several banks. Wall Street is also worried about the outlook for tech stocks after both RIM and Oracle reported quarterly results Wednesday and gave a tepid outlook.
On Wednesday, U.S. stocks managed to end the session with moderate gains as oil prices declined. The Federal Reserve held interest rates at 2%, saying inflation has become a higher risk to U.S. economy. The Dow industrials rose 4 points, or 0.04%, the S&P 500 added 7 points, or 0.58%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose nearly 33 points, or 1.39%.
In economic news, final first quarter GDP will be reported at 8:30 a.m. EDT, with economists expecting a slight revision upward. At the same time, weekly jobless claims is due out. Finally, at 10:00 a.m., May existing home sales figures will be released, and economists expect a small growth in sales.
Meanwhile, oil prices rose Thursday after a steep decline Wednesday following a report showing increase in U.S. inventories. Crude is back above $135 a barrel this morning as buyers came back to the market.
Anyone looking for good news in the housing sector will no doubt be keeping an eye on homebuilders Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) and KB Home (NYSE: KBH) when they report second-quarter earnings this week. Both companies are expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial to narrow their losses.
Lennar is expected to report net loss of 45 cents per share, as compared to a loss of 56 cents per share in the previous quarter and a loss of $1.55 per share in the year ago period. While the company hasn't posted a quarterly profit since the first quarter of 2007, the loss per share in the most recent quarter was 51 cents smaller than analysts had expected.
Miami-based Lennar is one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S., and it also provides financial services for home buyers. Even with the housing slump, the company had revenues in the past year of $10.2 billion, but its net loss totaled $1.9 billion. The company's long-term EPS growth forecast is 11.5%, which is less than the sector average and the S&P 500. The consensus recommendation of analysts remains to hold Lennar.
Shares closed Tuesday at $14.72, up from the 52-week low of $11.98 in January. The share price is down 62.9% from a year ago.
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the mortgage problem is in the process of cresting, which is why the stocks have largely bottomed.
We are in the heart of default country, and we knew we would be. This is the toughest moment. You need to go back and look at the calendar to realize the astonishing acceleration in defaults. It's simple: This moment two years ago is when the underwriting standards were the lowest, and this is the moment when the defaults will be the highest because the loans are resetting at high levels and most of the lenders, lenders like Countrywide (NYSE: CFC) (Cramer's Take), are more interested in getting as much out of a borrower as possible before kicking him out than working out the loan.
Think about it.
In the second quarter of 2006, the housing industry was going strong. We were in the 7-million-homes-changing-hands mode, and the vast majority of those homes required little money down, with home equity loans being taken out immediately to pay whatever little interest was being charged. These were the moments of the ultimate no-doc-high-fee loans by New Century Financial, Ameriquest, Resmed (Ditech), American Home Mortgage, Novastar, and of course, Countrywide. This was when the homebuilders' mortgage arms lent the most terribly.
Despite the fact that the challenging housing conditions are still persisting, it looks like that some major housing companies are poised to see the light at the end of tunnel. SmartMoney underlines the fact that there has been some encouraging trend for homebuilders during the past few months.
The National Association points out that, "the housing market has shown no evidence of improvement thus far," and the sentiment index is close to a historical low.
Looking at investing in housing stocks, one analyst at T. Rowe Price, Josh Spencer, makes a two-way analysis. From his point of view, housing stocks have a lot of risk if we are talking about their volatility, but they are not as risky when referring to a long-term time horizon due to their current cheap value.
Shares of home builder KB Home (NYSE: KBH) have been tumbling in early trading after the company announced this morning it swung to a first quarter loss. The company's quarterly numbers were dragged down by higher write-downs related to lower home prices. Unlike its competitor Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN), KB Home was not able to beat analysts' expectations, sending its shares down over 5% this morning.
Including a charge of $223.9 million in write-downs, the residential home builder posted a quarterly loss of $268.2 million, or $3.47 per share, hurt by lower new home deliveries and orders. The company's quarterly numbers were also hurt by higher impairment charges. Analysts expected KB Home to show a quarterly loss of "only" $1.17 per share.
The global crisis in the credit market put pressure on the home builder's revenue, which plunged 43% to $794.2 million. For this period, the slumping housing market and credit crisis came with a plunge of 75% for new home orders and with a drop of 57% for new home deliveries. Analysts, on average, predicted sales of $805.7 million in the quarter, according to Thomson Financial.
With the financial crisis spreading quickly, housing stocks have been facing tough times over the past few months. But on the heels of these worries, shares of one of the nation's largest homebuilders, Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN), have been climbing today despite posting a first quarter loss, as its earnings results were not as bad as analysts had forecast.
The company announced it swung to a quarterly loss of $88.2 million, or 56 cents per share, compared with a profit of $68.6 million, or 43 cents per share a year earlier, hurt by lower new home deliveries and orders. Included in the company's earnings figures was a charge of 38 cents per share related to valuation adjustments and write-offs. Excluding that, Lennar's loss would have come at 18 cents per share, exceeding analysts' forecasts for a quarterly loss of $1.07 per share.
The company's quarterly revenue saw a huge fall of 62% to $1.06 billion, down from $2.79 billion a year ago, on pressure from the average selling price which lost 8%. For this period, the slumping housing market came with a drop of 60% for new home deliveries, and with a decline of 57% for new home orders.
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U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open at the start of trading Thursday with Oracle likely to drop after reporting disappointing earnings yesterday. Sentiment could change, however as economic growth reading will be reported an hour before the opening bell.
On Wednesday, U.S. stocks dropped on renewed credit concerns after after news that the Clear Channel deal may be stalled due to financing issues. Declining durable goods orders didn't help sentiment and markets ended up declining with a day that exhibited patterns only too familiar as of late, a surge in commodity prices while the dollar weakened. The Dow industrials dropped 109 points, or 0.88%, the Nasdaq Composite lost 16 points, or 0.71%, and the S&P 500 fell 11 points, or 0.88%.
Today, several more economic readings will help shape the session, especially with the final reading on fourth-quarter gross domestic product -- due out at 8:30 a.m. EDT -- which is expected to remain the same as previous reading and show a 0.6% economic growth, a near standstill, and the weakest pace in five years. The deepening housing slump has probably tipped the U.S. economy into a recession. The situation may not be much better in 2008 as consumer spending has slowed and business investment and the housing market has continued to decline. Despite actions taken by the Federal Reserve and the government, these measures' effect will be a while in stimulating the economy and may not do so soon enough to avoid recession.
Also at 8:30, the Labor Department will release its weekly initial claims report.
As the financial crisis spreads quickly from Wall Street to other industries, two large home builder projects have received default notices. The problems involve developments in Las Vegas, where house prices have collapsed.
A project involving KB Homes (NYSE: KBH), Lennar (NYSE: LEN), and Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) has failed to make interest payments on $765 million in debt.
It is not clear how many other large real estate developments involving public home builders are facing near-term margin calls, but with the falling price of real estate, the problem in Las Vegas is unlikely to be that last one. That means that already weakened firms could face a credit crisis of their own as home prices continue to drop and the potential value of homes under construction face going on the market for a fraction of what they may have brought just a year ago.
Some of the large home building company stocks have lost over two-thirds of their value over the past year, and that may only be the beginning.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
Lehman Brothers has initiated the home-building industry with a "positive" rating and put price targets on Pulte (NYSE: PHM) of $15, Lennar (NYSE: LEN) at $20, KB Home (NYSE: KBH) at $24, and Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) at $27, according toBriefing.com.
Several analysts have said that growth targets at SAP (NYSE: SAP) "could be overly ambitious," according toMarketWatch.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says you should look at the moves in these stocks to see how the Fed's move took effect.
Didn't take long for people to start questioning why the market didn't do better after the cut, did it? The papers drone on about this concept and the papers are written by people who don't trade for a living.
If they did, they would know that we had explosive, once-in-a-lifetime moves in the Banks Index and the Housing Index last week that weren't repealed. Go hit up some of those stocks or the index, go hit up where a Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) (Cramer's Take) or Wachovia (NYSE: WB) (Cramer's Take) traded or a Lennar (NYSE: LEN) (Cramer's Take) or a Toll (NYSE: TOL) (Cramer's Take). Those stocks are so far off the bottom it's incredible.
How could anyone say the rate cut had no effect? In fact, the move is so astonishing in its strength that I am sure, if you trade, you said to yourself, "Oh my, that's the power right there of the Fed, the ability of a big-cap stock like Wells to trade from $24 to $30 or for Wachovia to trade from $28 to $36 or BofA (NYSE: BAC) (Cramer's Take) to trade from $33 to $40 where it was able to place billions of dollars in preferreds so it can live to play another gain."
ConAgra said earnings grew almost 5% from the year-ago period to $201 million, or 41 cents per share, including 23 cents per share from discontinued operations. The company also said revenue rose 15% to $3.08 billion.
U.S. stock futures were lower early Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve announced rates will be kept steady. Investors this morning are mostly concerned about financials following Goldman Sachs downgrades of several banks. Wall Street is also worried about the outlook for tech stocks after both RIM and Oracle reported quarterly results Wednesday and gave a tepid outlook.
Anyone looking for good news in the housing sector will no doubt be keeping an eye on homebuilders 
Despite the fact that the challenging housing conditions are still persisting, it looks like that some major housing companies are poised to see the light at the end of tunnel. SmartMoney 
Shares of home builder 
With the financial crisis spreading quickly, housing stocks have been facing tough times over the past few months. But on the heels of these worries, shares of one of the nation's largest homebuilders, 
U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open at the start of trading Thursday with Oracle likely to drop after reporting disappointing earnings yesterday. Sentiment could change, however as economic growth reading will be reported an hour before the opening bell.
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