Toll Brothers shows profit in second quarter

The Horsham, Pa.-based luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers returned to a profit in the second quarter amid signs of strengthening home-building market.

The company posted a profit of $16.9 million in the quarter, compared to a loss of $20.8 million in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose 17% to $373.7 million.

Douglas C. Yearley, Jr., Toll Brothers’ chief executive officer, stated, “It appears that the housing market has moved into a new and stronger phase of recovery as we have experienced broad-based improvement across most of our regions over the past six months. The spring selling season has been the most robust and sustained since the downturn began. Even now, for the first three weeks of May, our non-binding reservation deposits, a leading indicator of future contracts, are running 39% ahead on a gross basis, and 23% ahead on a per-community basis, compared to last year’s same May period.”

The builders’ home deliveries increased to 671 units, up from 591 units. Net signed contracts increased to 1,290 units, up from 879. And Backlog rose to 2,403 units, from 1,760.

“Operating performance and new order growth (+46.8% y/y) were materially ahead of expectations and attest to the strength of the spring selling season which is the best in the last five years,” according to a research note from RBC Capital Markets analyst Robert Wetenhall.