By Ilaina Jonas
The preliminary results helped drag down home-building sector. Toll shares were down 1.5 percent, while the broader Dow Jones U.S. home-building index fell 2 percent in early trading.
Preliminary results for the quarter ended January 31 showed home-building revenue of $842.7 million, down from $1.09 billion in the year-earlier quarter. It is scheduled to release final results for the quarter on February 27.
The U.S. housing market has been in a tailspin for more than two years, as demand falls and builders cut prices in the face of dwindling orders.
Toll's balance sheet is stronger than that of most other publicly traded home builders because it bought or optioned many of its lots earlier, when prices were lower, and in more expensive areas that tend to keep their value.
Toll ended the quarter with around $950 million in cash and more than $1.2 billion available under its multi-bank credit facility, which matures in March 2011.
The company said net signed contracts during the quarter, after cancellations, totaled 647 homes, down 37 percent from a year earlier. The fall was even more pronounced -- 50 percent -- in dollar terms, to $375.3 million.
Shares of Toll Brothers were off 2 percent, or 33 cents, at $21.54 in early Wednesday trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
