Toll Bros. (TOL) Trades Stronger Following Q3 Earnings as Investors May Have Expected Worse

Shares of luxury home builder Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) are up Wednesday morning following mixed results for its third-quarter report.

Revenue dipped 13.2 percent in the quarter from $454.20 million to $394.31 million, while total costs fell by 12.4 percent.

Net income in the quarter increased from $27.30 million to $42.11 million, a 54 percent jump. Earnings per share rose 56.3 percent to 25 cents.

The consensus was looking for revenue of $406.3 million and earnings of 3 cents per share.

Toll Brothers said excluding write-downs and debt retirement charges of $16.8 million and $3.4 million, respectively, third-quarter pretax income was $24.1 million. The quarter also included a $38.2 million tax benefit.

Some interesting notes for the quarter:

• Home building deliveries fell 14 percent to 693 units, compared with 803 units last year;
  
  
• Net signed contracts increased 2 percent in both dollars and volume;
  
  
• The average price for third-quarter contracts was $570,000, which was flat from the same period last year;
  
  
• Cancellation rate increased from 6.2 percent to 7.4 percent.

Looking ahead, Toll Brothers sees fourth-quarter 2011 deliveries of 620 to 820 units, with an average price of $555,000 to $570,000. The number compares with 700 units and an average price of about $575, in the fourth quarter of 2010.

The company sees FY11 deliveries of 2,475 to 2,675 units, from 2,642 in 2,010.

Toll Brothers shares are up 1.4 percent just minutes after the opening bell.

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