Lennar Gains 2% Following Top And Bottom Line Beat

Shares of Lennar Corporation LEN were trading higher by more than 2 percent Tuesday morning after the company reported its first quarter results.

Lennar said it earned $0.63 per share in the first quarter on revenue of $1.99 billion. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.52 per share on revenue of $1.86 billion.

Net earnings for the quarter rose to $144.1 million from $115.0 million in the same quarter a year ago as delivers of homes rose 12 percent to 4,832 and new orders of homes rose 10 percent to 5,794 and totaled $2.1 billion - up 19 15 percent.

Lennar also stated its backlog as of the end of the quarter rose 13 percent to 7,670 homes and the backlog dollar value of its orders rose 19 percent to $2.8 billion.

CEO Stuart Miller said, "We are very pleased with our first quarter results as we achieved pre-tax earnings of $201.7 million, our highest first quarter pre-tax earnings since 2006. Despite global economic concerns and volatility in the stock market, our net earnings increased 25% year-over-year and we had solid performances in most of our businesses. We continue to believe that the housing market is continuing its slow and steady recovery driven by years of under production, tight inventory levels, attractive interest rates and the lowest unemployment levels since 2008."