Lennar Q3 2026 earnings: profit and revenue miss as housing demand softens
Lennar's Q3 2026 profit and revenue missed forecasts as home deliveries, prices, and margins all slipped amid weaker housing demand.
| Q3 2026 | Reported | Expected | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | $1.23 | $1.32 | -6.5% |
| Revenue | $8.05B | $8.39B | -4.1% |
Key takeaways
- Adjusted profit of $1.23 per share came in below the roughly $1.32 Wall Street had expected, and revenue of about $8.05 billion also fell short of the roughly $8.39 billion forecast, extending a stretch of misses tied to weaker housing demand.
- Reported (GAAP) net earnings fell sharply to $284 million, or $1.19 per diluted share, from $591 million, or $2.29 per share, a year earlier, as fewer homes sold at lower average prices.
- Homebuilding revenue dropped 6% to about $7.7 billion because Lennar delivered 3% fewer homes (20,840) at a 3% lower average price (about $372,000), reflecting the price cuts and incentives builders are using to move inventory.
- New orders fell 9% to 20,879 homes, signaling that buyer demand is still softening rather than stabilizing heading into the next quarter.
- Gross margin on home sales narrowed to 15.8% from 17.5% a year ago, while selling and administrative costs rose to 9.2% of home sales from 8.2% — together showing the company is earning less on each home while spending more to sell them, which is why profit fell faster than revenue.
- The trailing-twelve-month figures tell the same story over a longer window: revenue is down about 7% and earnings per share are down more than 47% from a year ago, even though the company remains profitable with a net margin near 5% and a return on equity above 7%.
- Lennar cut its full-year delivery target to about 80,000-81,000 homes, down from an earlier 82,000-83,000 goal, citing continued pressure from higher mortgage rates and softer market conditions.
- For the fourth quarter, management guided to 22,000-23,000 deliveries, gross margin of 15.5%-16.0%, and adjusted earnings of $1.30 to $1.65 per share, suggesting margin pressure is expected to persist at a similar level rather than ease meaningfully in the near term.
Q3 2026 in context
| Metric | Aug 2026 | Aug 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $8.0B | $8.8B | -8.7% |
| Net income | $284M | $591M | -52.0% |
| Free cash flow | -$96M | -$191M | +49.5% |
| Diluted EPS | $1.19 | $2.29 | -48.0% |
| Net margin | 3.5% | 6.7% | -3.2 pts |
Figures for the quarter ended Aug 2026 and the quarter ended Aug 2025, as reported to the SEC.
How the stock took it
Lennar Corp closed at $80.07 on Sep 15, 2026, the last session before the report, and at $79.70 on Sep 17, 2026, the first session after it — -0.5% across the report.
Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.
Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 8.8% | Trailing 12 months |
| Operating margin | 6.7% | Trailing 12 months |
| Net profit margin | 4.9% | Trailing 12 months |
| Pretax margin | 6.7% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS | $6.46 | Trailing 12 months |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | -7.5% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS growth (YoY) | -47.1% | Trailing 12 months |
| Return on equity | 7.3% | Trailing 12 months |
Sources: company report · reputable coverage