Toll Posts Loss, but Sees Buyers Emerging

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers (TOL) reported a fiscal second-quarter loss of $83.2 million, or 52 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $93.7 million, or 59 cents a share, as revenue declined 51% to $398.3 million.

The latest quarter included pretax writedowns of 48 cents a share, compared with pretax writedowns of $1.06 a share in the second quarter a year earlier.

In a statement Wednesday, Toll said the loss in the second quarter, excluding writedowns, was $5.2 million, or 3 cents a share.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss of 50 cents a share.

Backlog at the end of the quarter was $944.3 million, down 55% from a year earlier.

The company said its second-quarter cancelations totaled 161, compared with 308 a year earlier.

Toll said it ended the second quarter with about $1.96 billion of cash.

Robert Toll, chairman and CEO, said it "appears that some buyers are beginning to re-enter the new home market." Toll said the company has experienced "positive same-week, year-over-year refundable-deposits-per-community comparisons in nine of the past 11 weeks."

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