Toll Bros' 6% Decline In Q3 Contracts Drags Down Sector

Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) dragged down housing sector stocks Wednesday when it told investors that the number of sales contracts it signed in the fiscal third quarter fell 6 percent.Toll, based in Horsham, Pa., signed 1,405 sales contracts in the recent period, which measured in dollar volume, declined 4 percent from a year ago to $949.1 million.Toll also narrowed its forecast for 2014 deliveries to between 5,300 and 5,500 units from 5,100 to 5,850 it previously forecast.But Toll's quarterly profit of $0.53 cents a share, on revenue of $1.06 billion, easily beat analysts' forecast of $0.45 a share on revenue of $986.9 million.The larger Hovnanian Enterprises (NYSE: HOV) is expected to post earnings Thursday of $0.09 a share on revenue of $559.5 million. Analysts are worried that Hovnanian's program of discounting its homes in the spring may have continued in more recent months, hurting profits.Toll's Chief Executive Douglas C. Yearley acknowledged Wednesday that "we have seen some lessening of pricing power in the past year," but added that Toll hasn't offered discounts to spur home sales.Toll traded recently at $34.04 a share, down 4.5 percent; Hovnanian was off 2.3 percent at $4.20 a share; PulteGroup Inc. (NYSE: PHM) fell 3 percent to $18.35 a share, while Ryland Group Inc. (NYSE: RYL) dropped nearly 3 percent to $35.95.Other home builders' shares were off generally between 1 percent and 2 percent.