Homebuilders mixed; Standard Pacific, WCI Communities lead decliners

NEW YORK, May 13, 2008 (Thomson Financial via COMTEX) -- WCI | news | PowerRating | PR Charts -- U.S. homebuilders traded mixed Monday with shares of WCI Communities Inc. and Standard Pacific Corp. offsetting a sharp rally on Wall Street.

The iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) fell 0.6% to $18.74.

Shares of Standard Pacific tumbled as much as 21.2% to $2.97 on volume of about 11.2 million shares. The issue's 30-day average volume is around 4 million.

The single-family home builder earlier reported an adjusted first-quarter loss of 23 cents a share and revenue of $348.2 million.

The mean estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters was for a loss of $1.22 a share and revenue of $398.4 million.

UBS analyst David Goldberg said while the company has sufficient liquidity for the near-term, the likely outcome of its efforts to reduce leverage to more manageable levels "remains unclear."

Goldberg said while the company had reached a preliminary agreement to extend the waiver on its bank convenants through Aug. 14, as part of receiving its extension, management expects to have to collateralize its credit line, "thereby further constraining its financial flexibility."

Shares of WCI Communities also tumbled 23.4% to $1.57, extending recent steep losses after an analyst last Thursday downgraded the stock on rising bankruptcy risk. The stock has lost more than half of its value since the beginning of May.

Among other decliners, shares of NVR Inc. fell 0.3% to $609, Levitt Corp. dropped 1.2% to $1.69, and Beazer Homes U.S.A. tumbled 5.1% to $9.41.

Champion Enterprises Inc. fell 0.7% to $9.19 and Orleans Homebuilders Inc. fell 7.4% to $4.35.

Bucking the downward trend, shares of D.R. Horton Inc. rose 2.5% to $15.20, while Toll Brothers Inc. added 2.1% to $23.36 and Centex Corp. gained 3.3% to $22.07. Pulte Homes Inc. traded up 2.5% at $13.34. Wanfeng Zhou wz/vj

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