Lennar Corp., one of the nation's largest homebuilders, said Thursday it swung to a loss in the first quarter as it absorbed charges to adjust land values, while new home sales and prices sank amid the stumbling real estate market.
The Miami-based builder reported a loss of $88.2 million, or 56 cents per share, in the three months ended Feb. 29 compared with profit of $68.6 million, or 43 cents per share, in the year ago quarter.
The results included a 38 cent-per-share charge related to valuation adjustments and write-offs of option deposits and pre-acquisition costs. After those adjustments, Lennar's loss was 18 cents per share.
The adjusted results were better than estimates on Wall Street, where the mean estimate of analysts polled by Thomson First Call was for a loss of $1.07 per share.
Sales fell 62 percent to $1.06 billion from $2.79 billion in the year-ago period. The average selling price fell 8 percent.
Lennar shares rose 31 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $17.90 Thursday.
ConAgra Foods Inc. The Omaha-based food giant is selling its commodities trading group for $2.1 billion even as it reported the division was a big reason why its third-quarter profit climbed 60 percent, beating Wall Street estimates.
The owner of brands like Healthy Choice, Chef Boyardee and Peter Pan also increased its earnings outlook for the full year to between $1.80 and $1.85 per share.
