KB Home company overview and operations

KB Home is involved in building houses for the purpose of selling the houses to those who need newly constructed houses. For over half a century, families have been approaching KB Home in order to build their dream homes. In the present situation, KB Home has a reputation in terms of "architectural innovation, tremendous quality, superior customer service and warranties." (About Us- The KB Story) KB Home is a Fortune 500 company which has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol of 'KBH' (KB Home Ranks in Top Three for Customer Satisfaction in Albuquerque, Austin, Houston and Las Vegas According to J.D. Power and Associates Study) The name of the company has changed and it was earlier known as Kaufman and Broad Homes. The operations of the company are in U.S. And France, as the functions of the constituent companies were, before they were joined together to form this company. Within United States they have grown into being the fifth largest builder and seller of homes through take over of many other builders. Their main competitors are now companies like DR Horton, Lennar and Pulte Homes. (KB Home (NYSE: KBH): www.forbes.com)

The company sells single family homes, condominiums and commercial buildings. Their target is the first time buyers of homes. They build houses of varying sizes -- from 1,200 square feet to 3,900 square feet. During the year 2004, the company succeeded in selling 31,646 homes. The mean price for their houses was $206,500. (KB Home (NYSE: KBH): www.forbes.com) It has been considered as a home building company wherein it provides help to its customers in the form of mortgage banking services to buy their homes through its subsidiary, KB Home Mortgage Company. (KB Home (NYSE: KBH): www.hoovers.com) Their existing programs are to build houses within 392 communities which come under the states of Illinois, New Mexico, California, Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Texas. (KB Home (NYSE: KBH): www.forbes.com) KB Home Studio makes buying of new homes as a truly personal experience as right from the cabinets to that of the countertops, flooring to that of the appliances, one can find anything required to build a special and personalized home. (About Us- The KB Story)

2. All housing companies have a limited area in which they operate and so does this company. The houses for sales are of different sizes and the segmentation of companies takes place based on the sizes of house sold, which has already been described. (Arlington residents sue KB Home) Their target is the customers who are interested in buying a home buyer, and often he is a buyer based on price. The reason for their success as a company is due to the fact that their constructions are close to the metropolitan area. This is liked by potential buyers as they are working in the metropolitan locality and would like to be able to communicate to their house from their place of work easily. They are also an old company having started in 1957 as Kaufman and Broad, which helps their reputation. Their supply chain, outsourcing and location of operations are built on the base of their length of operations and this helps them to provide houses at cheap prices. (Bosworth, 2005) There is a very high increase in the prices of shares of this company which shows the confidence of the people in the company. The sales in 2004 has been over $7 billion and the growth during 2004 has been of 21.4%.The financial performance of the company is good with growth in earnings per share being 22.29%, and dividend growth being 26.41%. Share prices are high being at $75.91. (KB Home (NYSE: KBH): www.hoovers.com) It is clear investors have a lot of faith in this company and that is the only possible reason for growth in share prices.