KB Home Rises Throughout Friday's Trading Session

Shares of KB Home

have been rising throughout Friday's trading session, and were up around 16 percent heading into the final hour of trade. The catalyst for the move in the stock price has been the company's third-quarter earnings report which was released prior to the opening bell. KB Home reported a profit, compared to Wall Street analysts' consensus EPS estimates calling for a loss. The stock has been surging on an intra-day basis, after opening the day at $13.35. At last check, the shares were trading above $15.00 on very heavy volume. More than 26 million KBH shares have already traded hands on the session compared to a 3-month daily average volume of 5.5 million shares. For the quarter, KB Home reported net income of $3.26 million or $0.04 per share, compared to a loss of $9.65 million or $0.13 per share, in last year's third-quarter. The results included a tax benefit of $10.7 million. This compared to Wall Street consensus EPS estimates of a loss of $0.16. Revenues in the period were up 16 percent to $424.5 million. This missed Wall Street consensus revenue estimates of $430.03 million. Jeffrey Mezger, president and chief executive officer of the company said, "During the quarter, we continued to generate improvement in several key financial and operating metrics. The favorable year-over-year performance in our deliveries; revenues; operating income; net orders; and backlog were particularly encouraging as we operated with fewer communities."