Start 30 days free, no card. Full Pro access for a month, then decide. Start free
Analyst
Ken Zener
Period: Reporting periods mapped to calendar 2024 Q3 – 2026 Q2 (8 quarters; questions recorded in 7).
- Questions
- 19on tracked calls
- Challenge rate
- 16%3 of 19 questions
- Companies
- 3questioned at least once
- Reporting periods
- 7with questions
These figures cover the whole profile: every tracked question, all reporting periods.
How to read these numbers
Challenge rate is the share of questions that pushed back, pressed for specifics or questioned management’s assumptions. It describes how questions were asked on the calls tracked here; it does not measure whether any view turned out to be right.
Rounding. Rates are rounded to whole percentages, so a small share can show as 0% even when some questions were challenging. The count beside each rate is exact; “none of N questions” means no question was challenging.
No questions recorded. “—” means there is nothing to calculate: no questions were recorded for that period on the calls tracked here. It does not mean there was no activity.
Fewer than 3 questions. A company-level rate is withheld when fewer than 3 questions were recorded for that company; the questions are still counted everywhere else.
Small samples. Profiles with fewer than 10 questions are marked Limited sample.
Reporting periods. Questions are grouped by the calendar quarter each company’s fiscal reporting period maps to, not by the date of the call. Periods without a calendar mapping are listed separately under their fiscal label.
Questions asked
Grouped by company, most questions first. Open a company to read its questions, newest reporting period first.
Showing 19 of 19 questions from 3 companies
DHID. R. Horton13 questions · 7 reporting periods · 3 of 13 challenging
Calendar 2026 Q2
What led to the modest beat that you guys had? Was it regional mix?
Show response
Paul credited the gross margin beat mainly to stick and brick cost reductions and slightly lower incentives, not regional mix.
Calendar 2026 Q1
your lower land cost, I think you said it was up 4% year-over-year. Could you give us some context to that
Show response
Romanowski said stick and brick savings from labor and materials expected to offset land increases in Q3 and Q4. Some land and lot reductions achieved but not widespread. Hansen noted lot cost increase moderated from 6% to 4% YoY.
did your teams tell you that you guys gained share? Or is that kind of just the demand environment
Show response
Murray said hard to gauge share vs. market but anecdotally maybe some share gains. Will know more as peers report over the next 1.5 weeks.
Calendar 2025 Q4
demand is there amid very low job growth. For example, Dallas, you're familiar with, The job growth is around 30,000 year over year
Show response
Romanowski attributed demand to pent-up first-time buyers leaving apartments or parents' homes. Less reliant on job growth for household formation but acknowledged long-term job growth is essential.
What if it stays weak? Do you pull you know, have you tapped essentially your demand that was there not tied to JobThroak
Show response
Hansen emphasized first-time buyers are need-based and will buy if affordable. Nearly 20% using gift funds. The lower the price point, the more buyers available since first-time buyers need somewhere to live.
Calendar 2025 Q3
you said high single digits in the past. Are we in -- at the -- does the 120 bps increase now bring us into low double digits in terms of incentives
Show response
Hansen corrected the figure to 110bps and confirmed incentives remain in high single-digit percentage overall. Noted 10bps of the increase was from external broker commissions.
20% gross margin guidance, while it's down sequentially, it's actually kind of in the range, if you take the historical view of the industry, that's pretty normal
Show response
Romanowski agreed job growth is critical for demand. Hansen said not ready to call a margin bottom but feels good about sustaining higher pretax margins than historical norms over the long term.
Calendar 2025 Q1
do you guys expect inventory units to be down year-over-year in 4Q
Show response
Inventory expected roughly flat YoY at fiscal year-end. Targeting turns better than 2x this year and next, leveraging compressed construction times.
how you think about the floor and pace that you're willing to cut take price to drive sales
Show response
Absorptions approaching pre-COVID norms. Community count growth offsets lower per-community pace. Balance of pace and margin maximizes returns.
Calendar 2024 Q4
Is there any reason we didn't necessarily see more dispersion of margins in your business because Florida, Texas, the West, they are all pretty similar
Show response
Regional groupings aggregate enough markets to smooth out individual market variations. All markets focused on maximizing returns.
Could you give color around the margin spread between the 47% backlog closings and the 53% spec
Show response
Could not provide spec vs backlog margin spread. Acknowledged pre-quarter sales at slightly higher margin than December exit rate.
Calendar 2024 Q3
do you still have confidence that your -- the gross margins can be structurally higher for you guys
Show response
Maintained long-term structurally higher margin thesis citing scale and lower leverage, while acknowledging short-term compression to maximize returns.
do you think part of the issue is on the slowing supply given the whole narrative of tight supply in terms of under construction
Show response
Management pivoted to lock-in effect limiting move-up buyers rather than directly addressing demand pull-forward concern.
PHMPulteGroup4 questions · 4 reporting periods · 0 of 4 challenging
Calendar 2026 Q2
What % of buyers in Florida are from out of state? I combined my questions.
Show response
Management did not have the out-of-state figure but described how buyer mix varies by Florida market, citing continued momentum.
Calendar 2025 Q4
can you talk about the West? It is a broad area for you. But the gross margins which, you know, would have been higher to compensate for, you know, lower asset turns, it is lower
Show response
Marshall attributed West margin pressure to high home prices, tech sector employment concerns, and post-COVID pricing surge. Colorado similar dynamics to Texas. Geographic diversification offsetting weakness.
Calendar 2025 Q3
can you talk about perhaps the 8.9%, how that's distributed amongst the regions
Show response
Marshall confirmed lower incentives in strong markets (FL, SE, NE, MW) and higher in weaker ones (TX, West). Cautioned against over-indexing on one period of slower Texas job growth.
Calendar 2025 Q1
What do you think your 4Q year-end inventory units, are going to be relative to last year's 4Q? And how are your incentives different by segment?
Show response
Marshall expects year-end spec within 40-45% target range, lower than Q4 2024's 53%. Ossowski noted incentives vary by segment - financing for first-time, design options for Del Webb.
LENLennar2 questions · 1 reporting period · 0 of 2 challenging
Calendar 2025 Q1
if you guys can quantify the spread between what you saw in backlog and what became intra-quarter order closings in 1Q
Show response
Diane confirmed both backlog and sell-close margins are hovering around the 18% guidance level, with limited data only a couple of weeks into Q2.
on an incremental cash flow basis, where land is increasingly, if not a variable cost
Show response
Diane and Stuart explained that while land cost is increasing as a variable, the efficiencies in construction costs, overhead absorption, and third-party capital more than offset. Stuart clarified it's not home-site-by-home-site optionality but shorter-duration land cycling.
Challenge rate by company
Every company this analyst questioned, most questions first. A company-level rate is shown from 3 questions; below that it is withheld.
| Company | Questions | Challenge rate |
|---|---|---|
| DHI D. R. Horton | 13 | 23%3 of 13 questions |
| PHM PulteGroup | 4 | 0%none of 4 questions |
| LEN Lennar | 2 | —Rate withheld: fewer than 3 questions |
Activity by reporting period
Questions recorded for each calendar quarter that companies’ reporting periods map to (not the call date), with the challenge rate for that period. Periods inside the range with no questions are shown as “No questions recorded”.
| Calendar period | Questions | Challenge rate | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q3 | 2 | 50%1 of 2 questions | 1 |
| 2024 Q4 | 2 | 0%none of 2 questions | 1 |
| 2025 Q1 | 5 | 0%none of 5 questions | 3 |
| 2025 Q2 | No questions recorded | — | — |
| 2025 Q3 | 3 | 0%none of 3 questions | 2 |
| 2025 Q4 | 3 | 67%2 of 3 questions | 2 |
| 2026 Q1 | 2 | 0%none of 2 questions | 1 |
| 2026 Q2 | 2 | 0%none of 2 questions | 2 |
- 2024 Q32 questions · challenge rate 50% (1 of 2 questions) · 1 company
- 2024 Q42 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 2 questions) · 1 company
- 2025 Q15 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 5 questions) · 3 companies
- 2025 Q2No questions recorded
- 2025 Q33 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 3 questions) · 2 companies
- 2025 Q43 questions · challenge rate 67% (2 of 3 questions) · 2 companies
- 2026 Q12 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 2 questions) · 1 company
- 2026 Q22 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 2 questions) · 2 companies
Topics
Topics tagged on this analyst’s questions.
- Margin10
- Demand6
- Pricing4
- Competitive Dynamics4
- Geographic Expansion4
- Macroeconomic3
- Cost Pressure2
- Inventory2
- Labor Market1
- Supply Chain1
Show all 12 topics
- Capital Allocation1
- Guidance Reliability1