KB Home Shares Rally Premarket After Profit, Sales Top Estimates

KB Home Inc. shares rose 6.4% in premarket trade Friday, after the homebuilder posted better-than-expected profit and revenue for its fiscal first quarter. The company said it had net income of $7.8 million, or 8 cents a share, in the quarter, down from $10.6 million, or 12 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose to $580.1 million from $450.7 million. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of 2 cents and revenue of $477 million. "With our rising community count providing a strong start entering the spring selling season and the leverage benefits we are anticipating from projected higher revenues, we expect to produce sequential margin improvement in each of the remaining quarters of 2015," Chief Executive Jeffrey Mezger said in a statement. Shares are down 12.5% in the last three months, while the S&P 500 has gained about 1%.