Dallas, July 26--Home builder and mortgage company Centex Corp. said its quarterly profit rose 24 percent, in part from higher home prices and closings, prompting the company to raise its outlook for the fiscal year.
Centex said that earnings rose to $177.2 million, or $1.35 a share in the fiscal first quarter ending June 31, 2004, from $142.8 million, or $1.12 per share, in the year-earlier quarter.
Analysts had expected earnings of $1.29 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.
Including results from discontinued operations, the company earned $1.43 per share compared $1.17 per share.
Centex, which develops single-family homes, townhouses and low-rise condominiums, said revenue rose 27 percent to $2.77 billion, from $2.17 billion a year earlier.
Home-building revenue rose 33 percent to $2.0 billion from $1.50 billion.
The company said closings rose by 16 percent to 7,383 homes in this year's first quarter, and margins, boosted by higher home prices rose to 11.8 percent from 10.4 percent.
New home orders for this year's first quarter were 9,031 homes, up 7 percent.
The company ended the quarter with a backlog of homes sold but not built and closed on, of 17,062 units, 21 percent higher than a year earlier. The backlog value rose 44 percent to $5.0 billion versus the same quarter last year.
While the company's home building operations rose during the quarter, earnings from its financial division fell 12 percent.
For the year, the company raised its outlook to earnings in the range of $$6.75 to $7.25 per share, up from its previously raised forecast of $6.50 to $7.00 per share. Analysts on average had expected the company to earn $6.80 per share for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2005.
