Forestar Group (NYSE:FOR) Coverage Initiated at BTIG Research

Equities research analysts at BTIG Research began coverage on shares of Forestar Group (NYSE:FOR) in a research note issued on Monday. The brokerage set a “neutral” rating on the oil and gas exploration company’s stock.

FOR has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Zacks Research raised Forestar Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Forestar Group in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Citigroup upped their price target on Forestar Group from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Forestar Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.75.

Forestar Group Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE FOR opened at $24.84 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.22. The firm has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.60 and a beta of 1.42. Forestar Group has a 1 year low of $18.00 and a 1 year high of $30.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Forestar Group (NYSE:FOR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 20th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.09. Forestar Group had a net margin of 9.90% and a return on equity of 9.76%. The business had revenue of $273.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $265.48 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Forestar Group will post 3.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Forestar Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB raised its position in shares of Forestar Group by 400.0% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 500,000 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $13,295,000 after purchasing an additional 400,000 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Forestar Group by 232.9% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 529,863 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $10,597,000 after purchasing an additional 370,685 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Forestar Group by 50.8% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 489,230 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $10,342,000 after purchasing an additional 164,753 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in Forestar Group by 235.3% during the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 159,053 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $4,229,000 after buying an additional 111,620 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Forestar Group by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,769,594 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $73,644,000 after buying an additional 110,286 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 35.50% of the company’s stock.

Forestar Group Company Profile

Forestar Group Inc, headquartered in Austin, Texas, is a residential lot development and management company focused on delivering finished home sites to homebuilders across the United States. The company acquires, entitles and develops land for single-family and multi-family housing, managing zoning, infrastructure and environmental approvals to prepare lots for construction. Forestar’s integrated approach to land development spans from initial site acquisition through final lot delivery, providing homebuilders with ready-to-build parcels in a variety of markets.

In addition to lot development, Forestar operates a retail homebuilding segment through joint ventures and strategic partnerships with national and regional homebuilders.