KB Home Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know (KBH)

KB Home Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know

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Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of homebuilder KB Home (NYSE: KBH ) fell 16% today when it found out its homes and shares were built on quicksand.

So what: The Street was expecting a loss when KB reported quarterly results, but it wasn't supposed to be nearly this bad. Net loss rose to $68.5 million, or $0.89 per share, up from $0.40 per share a year ago and topping estimates of a $0.31 loss.

Now what: Some of that can be blamed on a $20.6 million charge to write down land value the company thought it was buying cheaply. I guess the housing market isn't anywhere near a recovery based on these results, and things may still be getting worse. I would stay away from homebuilder shares because I think losses will keep piling up as the housing market stagnates over the next few years.

Interested in more info on KB Home? Add it to your watchlist.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

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Fool contributor Travis Hoium does not have a position in any company mentioned. You can follow Travis on Twitter at @FlushDrawFool, check out his personal stock holdings or follow his CAPS picks at TMFFlushDraw.

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