Toll Posts Lower Profit as Housing Markets Soften

Posted 05 December 2006 @ 01:35 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Toll Brothers Inc., which builds luxury homes, on Tuesday reported lower quarterly earnings amid continuing softness in some of the once-hottest U.S. housing markets.

In the fourth quarter that ended on October 31, profit fell to $173.8 million, or $1.07 per share, from $310.3 million, or $1.84 per share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected $1.06 per share. Toll said it expected earnings of $1.58 to $2.08 a share for fiscal 2007.

The company's outlook includes the expected impact of a change of accounting method, which the company anticipates will shift earnings of between 22 cents and 29 cents a share from 2007 to subsequent years.

The forecast also includes an estimate of $60 million of pretax land-related write-downs above the $16 million Toll budgeted annually in recent years due to uncertain market conditions.

But Chief Executive Robert Toll said in a statement: "Fifteen months into the current slowdown, we may be seeing a floor in some markets where deposits and traffic seem to be dancing on the bottom or slightly above."