Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:HOV) recently unveiled its earnings for the fourth quarter of this fiscal year. The earnings have gone downhill by 13%, in comparison to Q4 2015. The company also announced that apart from its quarterly earnings decline, there was also a profit decline, which dropped down to $22.29 million. Company’s profit has dropped down to $0.14 per share.
A comparison from the Q4 2015
In the fourth quarter of this financial year, the company said that it earned $22.29 million. In Q4 during the same time previous year, Hovnanian Enterprises had earnings of $25.52 million. On the year over year basis, this dropped down by 12.7%.
However, the revenue of company increased in the fourth quarter, in comparison to the previous year. The company reported that its total revenue was $805.1 million, while in the previous year, it was $693.20 million. There was a 16.1% increase in revenue, on year over year basis. For 2016 fiscal, the revenue grew by 28%.
Nonetheless, the CEO of company, Ara K. Hovnanian said that despite an increase in the revenue, the present year remained a challenging one. The reason is that Hovnanian Enterprises cleared off $260 million in the form of public debt, which was scheduled for this time. The CEO explained that the debts to the companies were not cleared with the credit ratings and because funds for maturing public debt had to be accumulated.
It must be noted that the company used its land bank cash to increase its liquidity. The company has also not invested the amount it committed to the new land parcels. At present, the company stands with a liquidity position of $347 million. The CEO said that his company was exploring opportunities to invest aggressively in the future.
Given that there is no public debt clearance standing in the time to come, the prospects of land investments cannot be ruled out for this company. This can be done if the market conditions remain static.
