(By Balaseshan) M/I Homes Inc. (NYSE: MHO) swung to a quarterly profit on jump in new contracts and homes delivered as well as improvement in gross margins. Despite revenue exceeding consensus, earnings missed Street's expectations.
Earnhings for the fourth quarter were $5.02 million or $0.23 per share, compared to a loss of $2.98 million or $0.16 per share last year.
The latest quarter results consisted primarily of adjusted pre-tax income from operations of $7.0 million, offset by $1.6 million of asset impairments and $0.4 million of tax expense.
Total revenue climbed 41.9% to $250.91 million.
Analysts, on average, polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a profit of $0.27 per share on revenue of $247.13 million for the fourth quarter.
Total homebuilding revenue jumped 41.7% to $243.28 million, while financial services revenue surged 49.7% to $7.63 million.
Adjusted gross margins expanded 120 basis points.
New contracts soared 33.3% to 673 for the fourth quarter. Homes delivered in the fourth quarter were 887, up from last year's 667. The company's cancellation rate was 21%, compared to 23% in the same period last year.
Backlog of homes at December 31, 2012 had a sales value of $283 million, with backlog units of 965 and an average sales price of $293,000. At December 31, 2011, backlog sales value was $181 million, with backlog units of 676 and an average sales price of $267,000.
"Looking ahead, with macro housing conditions continuing to show noticeable signs of improvement, we are excited about our future. We ended 2012 with momentum and believe we are very well positioned to build upon that momentum as we look to 2013 and beyond," said Robert Schottenstein, Chief Executive Officer and President.
MHO is trading down 4.98% at $26.33 on Thursday. The stock has been trading between $10.42 and $29.07 for the past 52 weeks.