Berkshire Hathaway Is Buying Lennar While Analysts Turn More Bearish

Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN) stock rose in Tuesday premarket trading after Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK) (NYSE:BRK) disclosed a new ownership stake.Lennar Position Expands At BerkshireBerkshire Hathaway disclosed ownership of 23.72 million Lennar Class A shares and 528,217 Class B shares.Berkshire added to its holdings between Sept. 17 and Sept. 21, 2026, buying 2.67 million Class A shares and 75,021 Class B shares.The Class A purchases had weighted average prices ranging from $76.39 to $79.41, while Class B prices ranged from $74.80 to $78.38.Berkshire became subject to Section 16 reporting as a 10% beneficial owner and filed Form 3 and Form 4.The shares are held indirectly through Berkshire insurance subsidiaries. Warren E. Buffett is also listed as a reporting person and disclaimed beneficial ownership beyond his pecuniary interest.Lennar Q3 Misses ExpectationsLennar recently reported adjusted earnings of $1.23 per share ($1.19 GAAP), missing the consensus estimate of $1.30. Revenue of $8.05 billion missed the $8.31 billion estimate.The company ended the quarter with $1.2 billion in cash and $3.6 billion of total liquidity.For the fourth quarter, Lennar expects new orders of 19,500 to 20,500 homes and deliveries of 22,000 to 23,000 homes. The company forecasts gross margins of 15.5% to 16% and earnings per share of $1.30 to $1.65.Lennar reduced its construction cycle time to 116 days, while homebuilding debt accounted for 16.6% of total capital. Inventory totaled about 38,800 homes, including roughly 3,100 completed unsold homes, or 1.8 per community.The company said it controlled 98% of its land through third parties.Housing Demand Remains SoftThird-quarter new orders fell 9% year over year to 20,879 homes, while deliveries declined 3% to 20,840. Backlog stood at 16,857 homes valued at about $6.3 billion.CEO Stuart Miller said the operating environment “has deteriorated since our last earnings call.”The average selling price on new orders was $359,000, below the $370,000 consensus estimate cited by Truist Securities. The sales pace was 4.1 homes per community per month, down 12% year over year.Bank of America analyst Rafe Jadrosich also pointed to “ongoing pricing pressure despite lower incentive levels,” citing weak housing demand and affordability headwinds in recent commentary.LEN Technical Setup Remains WeakDespite Tuesday’s rebound, Lennar continues to trade below its major moving averages. Shares are 3.7% below the 20-day SMA, 5.7% below the 50-day and 17.6% below the 200-day SMA.The 50-day SMA remains below the 200-day average following January’s death cross.MACD is also below its signal line with a negative histogram, indicating momentum has yet to turn decisively positive.Resistance sits near $88.50.Analysts Cut Lennar Price TargetsLennar carries a Sell consensus rating with an average price target of $78. Citigroup maintained Neutral and lowered its target to $85 on Sept. 21. RBC Capital maintained Underperform and cut its target to $69 on Sept. 18. Barclays maintained Underweight and lowered its target to $70 on Sept. 18. LEN Stock TodayLEN Stock Price Activity: Lennar shares were up 2.32% at $79.89 during premarket trading on Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.Image via Shutterstock Read Also: Warren Buffett, Donald Trump Bet on Same 17 Stocks — Some Might Surprise You