BZH - Beazer Homes stock slides after fiscal Q1 earnings revenue disappoint

Beazer Homes USA ( NYSE: BZH ) stock dropped 7.6% in Thursday after-hours trading after the homebuilder's fiscal Q1 profit and sales each dived from a year before as high mortgage rates weighed on new home sales.

"Toward the end of the quarter, as mortgage rates fell modestly, we experienced improved online and in-person visits, which led to a meaningful acceleration in our new home orders in January," said Chairman and CEO Allan P. Merrill.

Q1 EPS of $0.80 , exceeding the average analyst estimate of $0.74, slid from $1.14 in the year-ago quarter. Revenue of $444.9M for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2022, vs. $456.1M consensus, retreated from $454.15M for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2021.

Net new orders plunged 57.8% Y/Y to 1,141, driven by a 60.1% fall in sales pace to 1.3 orders per community per month, down from 3.3 in the prior year period. Also, the cancellation rate more than tripled to 37.1%, in a sign that elevated mortgage rates took its toll on housing demand.

Homebuilder gross margin of 19.2% compared with 20.9% a year ago.

Adjusted EBITDA came in at $47.1M, dipping 22.9% from the year-earlier period.

Earlier, Beazer Homes GAAP EPS of $0.80 beats by $0.06.

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