Reuters
Toll posts lower profit
Tuesday December 5, 8:29 am ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE:TOL - News), which builds luxury homes, reported lower quarterly earnings on Tuesday amid a slowdown in the U.S. housing market, sending its shares down more than 3 percent before the market opened.
The company also noted uncertain market conditions in its forecast.
In its fiscal fourth quarter that ended on October 31, profit fell to $173.8 million, or $1.07 per share, from $310.3 million, or $1.84 per share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected $1.06 per share.
Toll said it expected earnings of $1.58 to $2.08 a share for fiscal 2007.
Its shares fell 3.2 percent to $30.90 in electronic trading before the market opened.
The company's outlook includes the expected impact of a change of accounting method, which the company anticipates will shift earnings of between 22 cents and 29 cents a share from 2007 to subsequent years.
The forecast also includes an estimate of $60 million of pretax land-related write-downs -- above the $16 million Toll budgeted annually in recent years -- due to uncertain market conditions.
But Chief Executive Robert Toll said in a statement: "Fifteen months into the current slowdown, we may be seeing a floor in some markets where deposits and traffic ... seem to be dancing on the bottom or slightly above."
Toll posts lower profit
Tuesday December 5, 8:29 am ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE:TOL - News), which builds luxury homes, reported lower quarterly earnings on Tuesday amid a slowdown in the U.S. housing market, sending its shares down more than 3 percent before the market opened.
The company also noted uncertain market conditions in its forecast.
In its fiscal fourth quarter that ended on October 31, profit fell to $173.8 million, or $1.07 per share, from $310.3 million, or $1.84 per share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected $1.06 per share.
Toll said it expected earnings of $1.58 to $2.08 a share for fiscal 2007.
Its shares fell 3.2 percent to $30.90 in electronic trading before the market opened.
The company's outlook includes the expected impact of a change of accounting method, which the company anticipates will shift earnings of between 22 cents and 29 cents a share from 2007 to subsequent years.
The forecast also includes an estimate of $60 million of pretax land-related write-downs -- above the $16 million Toll budgeted annually in recent years -- due to uncertain market conditions.
But Chief Executive Robert Toll said in a statement: "Fifteen months into the current slowdown, we may be seeing a floor in some markets where deposits and traffic ... seem to be dancing on the bottom or slightly above."
