Hovnanian (NYSE: HOV) Partners with Blackstone in $125mil Land-Banking Deal

Orlando, FL 7/13/12 (StreetBeat) –Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: HOV) will partner with Blackstone Group LP’s credit arm in a land-banking deal for up to $125 million. In the deal, Blackstone will purchase housing development sites from HOV and then option them back to the homebuilder, allowing HOV to take advantage of the recovering housing market.

Blackstone’s GSO Capital Partners LP has already acquired six parcels totaling 620 lots at $65 million, which includes both acquisition and future development expenses. Hovnanian will be able to buy the lots back on a quarterly basis.

“We firmly believe that the U.S. residential real estate market has bottomed and that Hovnanian is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the recovery,” Doug Ostrover, GSO founding member and partner, said in the statement.

The demand for new U.S. homes has rapidly increased after sales fell to a record low in 2011. According to the Commerce Department, purchases reached a two-year high in May.. putting Hovananian in an andvantageous position. In its secord quarter alone, Hovnanian, based in Red Bank, New Jersey, reported an unexpected profit as orders jumped 52%.

The companies plan to identify new land parcels totaling as much as $60 mil to add to their portfolios. Blackstone intends to raise its equity stake by exchanging $15mil of HOV’s notes for about 3.9 million shares.

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Hovnanian (NYSE: HOV) Reports Unexpected Profit As Home Orders Surge

Shawshank, VA 6/6/12 (StreetBeat) -- Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. (NYSE:HOV), the largest homebuilder in New Jersey, reported an unexpected profit for its fiscal second quarter as orders increased 52 percent amid rising U.S. demand for new houses. The shares surged.

Net income for the three months ended April 30 was $1.8 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with a loss of $72.7 million, or 69 cents, a year earlier, the Red Bank-based company said today in a statement. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for a loss of 32 cents a share.

Hovnanian, which reversed eight straight quarters of losses, has been buying land at distressed prices to boost margins as the housing market recovers. Purchases of new homes in the U.S. rose 3.3 percent in April from the previous month to an annual pace of 343,000, the Commerce Department said May 23.

“We still have fundamental concerns with the company, given its performance over the past several years,” Vincent Foley and Cedric Morris, analysts with Barclays Plc in New York, said in a June 4 note to clients. “However, its operations should benefit from the recent increase in homebuyer demand during the 2012 spring selling season.”

Hovnanian’s net contracts for the period jumped to 1,775 homes from 1,166 a year earlier, the company said.

The stock gained 19 percent to $2.02 at 9:40 a.m. in New York. It advanced 17 percent this year through yesterday, compared with a 21 percent gain for Bloomberg’s 13-member homebuilder index.

Please contact www.thestreetbeat.com for interest in our latest investor relations platform the “CEO Interview Series” with its host Steve Kanaval. The package includes a one-on-one interview with a seasoned industry professional; published segment to our web site with embedded audio/video file; and a compressed file that can be easily e-mailed out to your current and/or potential investors. Please e-mail bflautt@gmail.com or call (662) 392-0740 for pricing and scheduling.

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LargeCap Stocks to Keep an Eye on Today

Tomahawk, WI 9/8/2011 (PennyPayDay) – Caliper Life Sciences, a provider of imaging and detection solutions for life sciences research, is being bought by scientific instruments provider PerkinElmer for about $600 million.

Caliper shares were surging 41.3% to $10.44 in premarket trading Thursday.

Homebuilder Hovnanian Enterprises reported a third-quarter loss of 47 cents a share, narrower than the loss of 50 cents a share that analysts, on average, were expecting.

Shares were gaining 4.9% to $1.73.

Shareholders of discount retailer Dollar General are selling 25 million shares of the company's common stock.

Shares were falling 3.2% to $35.95.

Men's Wearhouse expects third-quarter sales growth of 3% to 4%, which is in line with estimates. But the company gave above-consensus earnings projections for both the third quarter and full year, saying it expects adjusted earnings of 64 cents to 66 cents a share and $2.13 to $2.20 a share in the respective periods.

The company reported adjusted earnings of $58.3 million, or $1.11 a share, for its second quarter with total sales rising 22% year over year to $655 million, and same-store sales for its namesake brand increasing 10.9%.

The performance topped guidance for adjusted earnings of $1.02 to $1.05 a share, and ahead of the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters for a profit of $1.04 a share.

Shares were tumbling 2.4% to $28.80.

General Motors said sales in China in August rose 13.4% from a year earlier.

Shares were down 0.9% to $22.65 as general market sentiment dipped on a report that weekly initial jobless claims rose 2,000 to 414,000 hours before President Barack Obama lays out his jobs growth plans before Congress.

Smithfield Foods, the pork processor, posted adjusted first-quarter profit of 69 cents a share, topping analysts' estimates, on strong earnings from packaged meats.

Sales in the quarter rose 7% to $3.09 billion from $2.9 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected Smithfield to earn 67 cents a share in the quarter on sales of $3.15 billion.

Shares were up 0.6% to $22.25.

Online retail giant Amazon.com has cut a tentative deal that would allow the online retailer to postpone collecting sales taxes from Californians for another year, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Shares were down 0.4% to $219.01.

FedEx is considering updating its fleet with 50 planes from Boeing and Airbus in a deal potentially worth several billion dollars, according to Bloomberg.

Firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson expects second-quarter revenue of between $93 million and $96 million, below the average analyst estimate of $103.9 million.

First-quarter profit came in at a penny a share, beating the Wall Street breakeven target.

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