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Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Pulte Homes' 3Q Results Fall Short

By Ken Sweet

FOXBusiness

Homebuilder Pulte Homes (PHM) saw its loss widen in the third quarter as the company dealt with costs related to its purchase of Centex earlier this year.

Pulte, the nation’s largest home builder, said it lost $361.4 million, or $1.15 a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $280.4 million, or $1.11 a share. The company had one-time impairment charges of $163.8 million and a $86.7 million one-time charge related to land owned by Centex.

Revenue for the quarter was $1.1 billion

The loss was worse-than-expected, with analysts expecting Pulte to report a loss of 69 cents a share, on $1.23 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.

“Pulte's results reflect a homebuilding industry that continues its transition toward more stable market conditions as lower prices and historically low mortgage rates are helping to support homebuyer demand," said Pulte CEO Richard Dugas said in a statement.

New-home orders, including those from Centex, rose 35% to 4,048 homes, compared to 3,008 homes a year ago.

The company’s current backlog of homes was 8,383, currently valued at $2.2 billion.

Shares of Pulte were up 4 cents to $9.27 a share in pre-market action, but are down 15.5% year to date.

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