We recently compiled a list of the 10 Best Home Builder Stocks To Buy Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) stands against the other home builder stocks.
Lowering Mortgages: A Sigh of Relief for the Housing Market?
Mortgage rates have dropped for six straight weeks to their lowest since February 2023 as the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.20% in the week ended September 12. While many experts believe that these rates will be in the 5% range by 2025, the gesture seems to be motivating for all those looking to buy a house but have long been priced out of the market. In an interview with CNBC, Bess Freedman, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens, mentioned how the anticipated Fed rate cut could be beneficial for the housing market but its effect would unfold gradually. The long-awaited move is also likely to help sellers escape the mortgage lock-in effect and finally put their houses on the market. The mortgage lock-in effect refers to existing homeowners holding onto their houses since they will have to pay a higher rate on a new house.
Diane Swonk, KPMG chief economist, talked about the downside of this positive news with CNBC saying that it couldn’t spur buyer activity a lot. In the existing housing market, there is a lot of pent-up demand especially with 12,000 millennials a day turning 35 and moving into their peak home-buying years. Many buyers are still waiting for mortgage rates to go even lower in the hopes of the Fed rate cut. Other than that, home affordability being at its worst since 2006 is further pushing out potential buyers. The root cause in this case remains decades of under-building which has restricted the prevailing supply. According to Swonk, the US zoning laws need to be rethought to solve this housing crisis
Therefore, homebuyers and homeowners in the current tight housing market tend to see a welcome sign in the form of lowering mortgage rates ahead of the rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. However, the market continues to be plagued with persistent supply shortages and affordability issues.
Our Methodology:
In order to compile a list of the 10 best home builder stocks to buy now, we first used a stock screener to make an extended list of the relevant companies with the highest market caps. Moving on, we shortlisted the top 10 stocks from our list which had the highest number of hedge fund holders. The 10 best home builder stocks to buy now have been arranged in ascending order of their hedge fund holders, as of Q2 2024.
At Insider Monkey we are obsessed with the stocks that hedge funds pile into. The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A construction crew installing roof tiles on a newly built row home.
Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 60
Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) has built over one million new homes in the United States since 1954. The company constructs affordable, move-up, and active adult homes under the Lennar brand name. It offers mortgage financing, title, and closing services under its Financial Services segment while mortgage loans are originated by LMF Commercial. Simultaneously, Lennar’s Multifamily segment develops high-quality multifamily rental properties.
With 70 years of operation, Lennar now qualifies among the nation’s largest builders of quality homes. Homebuilding operations are the most substantial part of Lennar’s business and generated $33 billion in revenues in fiscal 2023. The company continues to drive momentum through 2024. Although interest rates rose most of the second quarter, the home builder remained resilient and performed well. A 19% increase in new orders and a 15% increase in deliveries year over year was witnessed. In home building, revenues increased 9% to $8.4 billion as compared to $7.6 billion in the prior-year period.
Over the past 5 years, the homebuilder has successfully expanded its net income by 16.75% and its revenue by 10.66%. The status of a leading American homebuilder, the capability of building affordable housing in strategic markets that cater to the existing housing shortage, resilience against the external environment, and a strong balance sheet are factors that make Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) one of the best home builders. The stock is held by 60 hedge funds, as of 2024’s second quarter.
Overall LEN ranks 2nd on our list of the best home builder stocks to buy. While we acknowledge the potential of LEN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued AI stock that is more promising than LEN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.