Several large home building companies, among them Beazer Homes USA Inc. and D.R. Horton Inc., are scheduled to deliver presentations this week at a Credit Suisse Homebuilder Conference in New York and have plans to broadcast the presentations live at their Web sites.
Many of the presentations are scheduled Tuesday — the same day as a much-anticipated Federal Reserve committee meeting in which the Fed will consider whether to make changes to the federal funds rate — several real estate industry trade groups have encouraged a reduction in this rate to jump-start a stumbling housing market.
The Credit Suisse conference, which begins today and runs through Tuesday, comes at a time when several publicly traded building companies are struggling with stagnant sales and a series of quarterly losses.
Beazer, a publicly traded company that has seen its stock price tumble from $80.13 per share on Jan. 10, 2006, to a seven-year low of $8.77 on Aug. 28, 2007, is scheduled to present at 9:50 a.m. ET on Tuesday. Beazer has been wracked by a series of investigations and lawsuits over the company’s lending practices, and the company in July announced quarterly losses of $123 million for the quarter ended in June.
In June, the company announced that Michael T. Rand, the company’s chief accounting officer and senior vice president, was terminated for “attempts to destroy documents in violation of the company’s document retention policy” — actions that were reportedly discovered during an internal investigation conducted by the company’s audit committee. The audit committee is investigating the company’s mortgage origination business “and related matters,” according to a company filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Other builders scheduled to present at the Credit Suisse event include Hovnanian Enterprises, MDC Holdings Inc., The Ryland Group Inc., Standard Pacific Corp., TOUSA Inc., and Toll Brothers Inc.
Bill Wheat, executive vice president and chief financial officer for D.R. Horton, and Stacey Dwyer, the company’s executive vice president and treasurer, are scheduled to present at the home builder conference at 3:10 p.m. ET Tuesday. The presentation can be accessed through the investor relations page at the DRHorton.com Web site, and a replay will be available within 24 hours of the presentation and can be accessed until Oct. 2, the company announced.
Senior managers for Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. will deliver a presentation at 9:05 a.m. ET on Tuesday, and the company will also have participation in a home builders panel today at 5:20 p.m. ET, the company announced. The panel and presentation will be available via live Web cast at the investor relations section of the company’s KHov.com Web site, and an archive of the broadcast will be available under the “Audio Archives” section of the investor relations Web page, the company announced.
MDC Holdings officials are scheduled to make a presentation at 3:55 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The presentation can be viewed at the RichmondAmerican.com Web site by clicking on “Investors” and selecting “Credit Suisse 2007 Homebuilding Conference,” the company reported, and the company’s presentation materials will be available online under the heading “Credit Suisse 2007 Homebuilding Conference Financial Presentation.”
The Ryland Group is scheduled to deliver a presentation at 10:35 a.m. ET Tuesday at the Credit Suisse conference, and will broadcast the presentation under at its Web site. Web site visitors can click on the investors section of the company site and select “Conference Call and Webcasts” and then select the “Credit Suisse 2007 Homebuilder Conference” link. The broadcast will be available for replay until Dec. 18, the company announced.
Standard Pacific will offer a Web audio broadcast of its presentation at 11:20 a.m. EDT on Tuesday at its StandardPacificHomes.com/ir Web site. TOUSA’s conference presentation is scheduled for 1:40 p.m. ET tomorrow, and the presentation will be available online at the “Webcasts and presentations” section of the company’s Web site, at tousa.com.
And the Toll Brothers presentation is set for 2:25 p.m. EDT on Tuesday. Toll Brothers will also participate in a Homebuilder’s Mortgage Market Panel at the conference today at 5:20 p.m. ET. Both presentations can be access through the investor relations section of the Toll Brothers Web site at TollBrothers.com.
Credit Suisse Group is a global financial services company based in Switzerland that offers investment banking, private banking, and asset management services.
