Avatar Holdings (Nasdaq: AVTR) on Monday reported a net loss of $6,540,000 (-$0.77 per diluted share) for the second quarter of 2008 on a 69.3% drop in revenues to $24,930,000. There were no earnings estimates for the company as it is not currently followed by any of the major Wall Street home building analysts.
Avatar closed on 70 homes during the quarter, a 68.5% decrease from the 222 homes closed during last year's second quarter. Dollar volume decreased by 74.3% to $18,055,000.
New orders, net of cancellations, fell 48% to 66, with the dollar volume down 33.2% to $17,980,000.
"Our sales results continue to reflect the weak market for new single-family and multi-family residences in our markets," the company said in its earnings release. "We continue to experience a high level of cancellations of sales contracts for homes. We do not anticipate a meaningful improvement in our markets in the near term."
At quarter's end, Avatar had cash and cash equivalents on hand of $156,037,000 against total borrowings of $114,930,000, including $114,800,000 of 4.50% convertible senior notes due 2024. Avatar had no amounts outstanding under its $100,000,000 revolving credit facility except $34,520,000 in letters of credit. Avatar's book value per share at June 30, 2008 was $61.15, according to the company.
Avatar, based in Coral Gables, is concentrated in Florida and Arizona with principal real estate operations at Poinciana, Solivita, and Bellalago in central Florida near Orlando, TerraLargo in Lakeland, Fla., and at Rio Rico, south of Tucson, Ariz.
The company's stock was up 1.6% to $32.52 in late afternoon trading Wednesday on normally light volume on a down day for most of the builder group.
Learn more about markets featured in this article: Lakeland, FL.
