Latest news with #BillWheat
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
D.R. Horton Inc (DHI) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Navigating Market Challenges with ...
Earnings per Share (EPS): $2.58 per diluted share. Net Income: $810 million. Revenue: $7.7 billion. Pre-tax Profit Margin: 13.8%. Home Sales Revenue: $7.2 billion on 19,276 homes closed. Average Closing Price: $372,500, down 1% year over year. Net Sales Orders: Decreased 15% to 22,437 homes. Order Value: Decreased 17% to $8.4 billion. Gross Profit Margin on Home Sales: 21.8%. SG&A Expenses: Increased by 4%, representing 8.9% of revenues. Homes in Inventory: 36,900 homes, with 23,500 unsold. Rental Operations Revenue: $237 million with $23 million pretax income. Forestar Revenue: $351 million on 3,411 lots sold. Financial Services Revenue: $213 million with $73 million pretax income. Cash and Liquidity: $5.8 billion in consolidated liquidity. Debt: $6.5 billion with a leverage of 21.1%. Stock Repurchases: 9.7 million shares for $1.3 billion. Dividend: $0.40 per share, totaling $126 million. Release Date: April 17, 2025 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. D.R. Horton Inc (NYSE:DHI) reported solid earnings of $2.58 per diluted share for the second quarter of fiscal 2025. The company achieved a pre-tax profit margin of 13.8% on $7.7 billion of revenues, demonstrating strong financial performance. D.R. Horton Inc (NYSE:DHI) maintained a low cancellation rate of 16%, indicating strong buyer commitment despite economic uncertainty. The company has a robust balance sheet with $5.8 billion of consolidated liquidity, providing significant financial flexibility. D.R. Horton Inc (NYSE:DHI) increased its share repurchase authorization to $5 billion, reflecting confidence in its financial position and commitment to returning capital to shareholders. Net sales orders and home building revenues decreased by 15% in the second quarter, reflecting challenges in the housing market. The average closing price for homes decreased by 1% both sequentially and year over year, indicating pricing pressures. Homebuilding SG&A expenses increased by 4% from the previous year, impacting overall profitability. The gross profit margin on home sales revenues decreased by 90 basis points sequentially due to higher incentive costs. D.R. Horton Inc (NYSE:DHI) expects incentive costs to increase further, potentially impacting future profit margins. Q: Can you discuss the shift in D.R. Horton's management approach, particularly regarding volume and share repurchases? A: Paul Romanowski, President and CEO, explained that the company is focusing on a return-based business model, balancing pace and price to drive returns and consistent operating cash flows. The emphasis is on maintaining significant scale while maximizing shareholder returns through share repurchases and dividends. Q: How is D.R. Horton managing its SG&A expenses given the recent increase? A: Bill Wheat, CFO, noted that while keeping a low-cost operating model is still crucial, recent investments have expanded the company's footprint and market count. These investments are seen as necessary for long-term market share aggregation, despite current market conditions not providing the expected growth rate. Q: What is the outlook for D.R. Horton's gross margin in the third quarter, and how do incentives play into this? A: Michael Murray, COO, stated that if incentives remain flat, the company could achieve the higher end of its gross margin target of 21% to 21.5%. However, market volatility, particularly in mortgage rates, makes precise predictions challenging. Q: How is D.R. Horton handling potential tariff impacts on costs, particularly with suppliers? A: Paul Romanowski mentioned that while there is significant noise around tariffs, the company feels well-positioned due to its strong supplier relationships and market scale. They expect to manage costs effectively and minimize tariff impacts. Q: What is D.R. Horton's strategy regarding community count and starts, especially in light of potential market softness? A: Jessica Hansen, SVP, explained that community count adjustments will depend on local market conditions and sales pace. The company is focused on maintaining flexibility in its lot position and will adjust community starts based on demand. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Veterinarian lawmaker files bill to protect veterinary practices after tiger protests
Sen. Bill Wheat and Sen. Eddie Lambert stand in the back of the Senate Chamber. (Allison Allsop/Louisiana Illuminator) A Louisiana state lawmaker who's also a veterinarian wants protections for his profession after protestors demonstrated outside his clinic last year against Gov. Jeff Landry's plan to bring a live tiger to an LSU football game. Senate Bill 21 by Sen. Bill Wheat, R-Ponchatoula, would add veterinarians, veterinary staff and veterinary practices to an existing state law that prohibits the battery of certain health care workers and criminalizes unlawful disruptions at certain medical facilities. The bill was unanimously advanced by the Senate Judiciary C committee and will next be discussed on the Senate floor. Wheat told committee members a fellow veterinarian brought the idea for the bill to him after a workplace violence incident at their practice. The lawmaker said he believes veterinary practices were inadvertently left out of the original legislation. 'I don't think there's any surprise that animals are very important to people's lives,' Wheat said. 'We certainly would like to be respected in that same manner as the protections in that definition.' Wheat said members of his veterinary clinic staff were threatened and intimidated by protesters over a 'misunderstanding of how we were going to deal with the LSU tiger situation.' Wheat was among the Republican officials, who are also veterinarians, who met with Gov. Jeff Landry and the dean of LSU's Veterinary School about the governor's request to bring Mike VII to a game at Tiger Stadium. The university had done so for many years before officially ending the practice in 2017. Wheat said he was always opposed to bringing the tiger in a trailer cage to the sidelines. 'For many reasons, I felt strongly this was not a good idea and expressed my opinion at the time,' Wheat said in a social media statement in November. Landry later opted to bring in a rented tiger from Florida to briefly participate in the pregame festivities at the LSU-Alabama game in November 2024. Wheat confirmed to the Illuminator before the game that the tiger would be present but later clarified in a social media statement that he was 'never consulted with or involved in any subsequent decisions concerning the use of another tiger for such purposes.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
