Century Communities reports Q1 EPS $1.04, consensus 68c

Reports Q1 revenue $753.0, consensus $623.66M. "We are pleased with our solid first quarter results as we continued to execute on our objectives, delivering 1,912 homes, generating $191M in operating cash flow and further reducing our net leverage ratio to 21.5%," said Dale Francescon, co-CEO. "In the quarter, we again prioritized our sales efforts on properly incentivizing homes with near-term completions to turn our inventories even though higher direct construction costs on those homes weighed on our margins. Looking forward, the homes that we have been starting over the past several months are carrying higher margins due to improvements in direct construction costs, reduced incentives and shorter cycle times, and we expect to generate higher gross margins in the second half of the year compared to the first. In response to these improved margins, we increased our home starts throughout Q1, which will lead to higher deliveries in the second half of 2023 compared to first half levels." Rob Francescon, Co-CEO, said, "We are increasingly encouraged by the improvement in sales activity that we experienced in Q1…In Q1, our community count increased to a company record 234 communities, and we have the ability to increase our count to a range of 250-260 communities by year end. Our balance sheet remains strong with $2.2B in stockholders’ equity and $1.2B in liquidity, including $418M in cash, and we intend to continue investing in our business and returning capital to shareholders."