NVR posts higher 3Q profit as new home orders rise

Homebuilder and mortgage company NVR posts 3rd-quarter profit as new orders rise

• On 10:59 am EDT, Wednesday October 21, 2009

RESTON, Va. (AP) -- NVR Inc., a homebuilder and mortgage company, said Wednesday its profit doubled in the third-quarter, helped by a 13 percent rise in new home orders.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, NVR earned $72.1 million, or $11.59 per share, compared with $36.6 million, or $6.12 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue, including both the company's homebuilding and mortgage lending operations, fell 13 percent to $814 million from $939.2 million. But new home orders increased 13 percent, while the cancellation rate and backlog both decreased, the company said.

The results beat Wall Street estimates. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected $7.60 in earnings per share and revenue of $713.4 million.

Shares of the company rose $23.26, or 3.5 percent, to $692 in morning trading.