Toll Brothers Cuts 2006 Deliveries View
Tuesday November 8, 11:04 am ET
Toll Brothers Cuts 2006 Home Deliveries View; Sees Weakened Demand in Some Markets
HORSHAM, Pa. (AP) -- Toll Brothers Inc. cut its home deliveries forecast for fiscal 2006 on Tuesday, citing fewer than expected selling communities and weakened demand in several markets. Shares of the luxury home builder tumbled more than 11 percent in morning trading.
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Toll Brothers projected home deliveries between 9,500 and 10,200 homes in fiscal year 2006, down from an earlier target of 10,200 to 10,600 homes. In fiscal 2005 it reported 8,769 deliveries.
"The shortage of selling communities, coupled with some softening of demand in a number of markets, negatively impacted our contract results," Toll Brothers said. "It appears we may be entering a period of more moderate home price increases, more typical of the past decade than the past two years."
New communities were taking longer to come to market, a delay it attributed to an increasingly complex regulatory environment. Roughly one-quarter of Toll Brothers' communities have backlogs of at least twelve months, and are not available for sale on a regular basis, it added.
For the fourth quarter, backlog jumped 36 percent to $6.01 billion, while contracts rose 4 percent to $1.59 billion.
For the fiscal year, home building revenue climbed 50 percent to $5.76 billion, while contracts increased 27 percent to $7.15 billion.
Its shares dropped $4.41, or 11.2 percent, to $35 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.. |
