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Cover and table of contents
UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
| ☒ | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020
OR
| ☐ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
Commission File Number 1-9804
PULTEGROUP, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| Michigan | 38-2766606 | |||||||
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
| 3350 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 150 | ||||||||
| Atlanta, | Georgia | 30326 | ||||||
| (Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code) |
| Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: | 404 | 978-6400 |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of each class | Trading Symbol | Name of each exchange on which registered | ||||||
| Common Shares, par value $0.01 | PHM | New York Stock Exchange | ||||||
| Series A Junior Participating Preferred Share Purchase Rights | New York Stock Exchange |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
NONE
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer”, “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company”, and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act
| Large accelerated filer | Accelerated filer | Non-accelerated filer | Smaller reporting company | Emerging growth company | ||||||||||
| ☒ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ | ☐ |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. [ ]
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management's assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☑
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
The aggregate market value of the registrant’s voting shares held by nonaffiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2020, based on the closing sale price per share as reported by the New York Stock Exchange on such date, was $9,077,356,567. As of January 21, 2021, the registrant had 265,894,240 shares of common shares outstanding.
Documents Incorporated by Reference
Applicable portions of the Proxy Statement for the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders are incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form.
PULTEGROUP, INC.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I
ITEM I. BUSINESS
PulteGroup, Inc. is a Michigan corporation organized in 1956. We are one of the largest homebuilders in the United States ("U.S."), and our common shares are included in the S&P 500 Index and trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “PHM”. Unless the context otherwise requires, the terms "PulteGroup", the "Company", "we", "us", and "our" used herein refer to PulteGroup, Inc. and its subsidiaries. While our subsidiaries engage primarily in the homebuilding business, we also have financial services businesses, including mortgage banking, conducted principally through Pulte Mortgage LLC (“Pulte Mortgage”), title, and insurance brokerage operations.
Homebuilding, our core business, which includes the acquisition and development of land primarily for residential purposes within the U.S. and the construction of housing on such land, generated 97% of our consolidated revenues of $11.0 billion in 2020 and 98% of our consolidated revenues of $10.2 billion in 2019 and 2018, respectively.
Available information
We file annual, quarterly, and current reports, proxy statements, and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). These filings are available at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Our internet website address is www.pultegroupinc.com. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act are available free of charge through our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with or furnish them to the SEC. Our code of ethics for principal officers, our code of ethical business conduct, our corporate governance guidelines, and the charters of the Audit, Compensation and Management Development, Nominating and Governance, and Finance and Investment Committees of our Board of Directors are also posted on our website and are available in print, free of charge, upon request.
Homebuilding Operations
Our Homebuilding operations are geographically diverse within the U.S. As of December 31, 2020, we operated out of 874 active communities in 40 markets across 23 states. We offer a broad product line to meet the needs of homebuyers in our targeted markets. Through our brands, which include Centex, Pulte Homes, Del Webb, DiVosta Homes, John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods, and American West, we offer a wide variety of home designs at different prices and with varying levels of options and amenities to our major customer groups: first-time, move-up, and active adult. During 2020, we delivered home closings totaling 24,624 homes, compared with 23,232 homes in 2019 and 23,107 homes in 2018. Over our history, we have delivered nearly 750,000 homes.
We predominantly sell single-family detached homes, which represented 85% of our home closings in 2020, 2019, and 2018. The remaining units consist of attached homes, such as townhomes, condominiums, and duplexes. Sales prices of home closings during 2020 ranged from approximately $150,000 to over $2,500,000, with 92% falling within the range of $200,000 to $750,000. The average unit selling price in 2020 was $430,000, compared with $427,000 in 2019, and $425,000 in 2018.
Strategy
We believe that national publicly-traded builders have a competitive advantage over local builders through their ability to: access more reliable and lower cost financing through the capital markets; control and entitle large land positions; gain better access to scarce labor resources; and achieve greater geographic and product diversification. Among our national publicly-traded peer group, we believe that builders with broad geographic and product diversity and sustainable capital positions will benefit from this scale and diversification in any market conditions. Our strategy to enhance shareholder value is centered around the following operational objectives:
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Drive operational gains and asset efficiency in support of high returns over the housing cycle;
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Shorten the duration of our owned land pipeline to improve returns and reduce risks, including targeting a long-term balance of approximately three years of supply each for owned and optioned land (approximately six years of supply in total);
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Maintain disciplined business practices to maximize returns on investment;
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Increase scale within our existing markets by appropriately expanding market share among our primary buyer groups: first-time, move-up, and active adult;
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Focus on building-to-order while maintaining an appropriate balance of speculative homes; and
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Manage the Company's capital consistent with our stated priorities: invest in the business, fund our dividend, maintain a long-term debt-to-capital ratio within a targeted range of 30.0% to 40.0%, and routinely return excess funds to shareholders through share repurchases.
Land acquisition and development
We acquire land primarily for the construction of homes for sale. We select locations for development of homebuilding communities after completing a feasibility study, which includes, among other things, soil tests, independent environmental studies and other engineering work, an evaluation of necessary zoning and other governmental entitlements, and extensive market research that enables us to match the location with our product offering to meet the needs of consumers. We consider factors such as proximity to developed areas, population and job growth patterns, and, if applicable, estimated development costs. We frequently manage a portion of the risk of controlling our land positions through the use of land option agreements, which enable us to defer acquiring portions of properties owned by land sellers until we have determined whether and when to exercise our option. Our use of land option agreements can serve to enhance our expected returns on our land investments and reduce the financial risk associated with long-term land holdings. We typically acquire land with the intent to complete sales of housing units within 24 to 36 months from the date of opening a community, except in the case of certain Del Webb active adult developments and other large master-planned projects for which the completion of community build-out requires a longer time period. While our overall supply of controlled land is in excess of our short-term needs in certain of our markets, some of our controlled land consists of long-term positions that will not be converted to home sales in the near term. Accordingly, we remain active in our pursuit of new land investment. We also periodically sell select parcels of land to third parties for commercial or other development or if we determine that such parcels no longer fit into our strategic operating plans.
Land is generally purchased after it is zoned and developed, or is ready for development, for our intended use. Where we develop land, we engage directly in many phases of the development process, including: land and site planning; obtaining environmental and other regulatory approvals; and constructing roads, sewers, water and drainage facilities, and community amenities, such as parks, pools, and clubhouses. We use our staff and the services of independent engineers and consultants for land development activities. Land development work is performed primarily by independent contractors and, when needed, local government authorities who construct sewer and water systems in some areas. At December 31, 2020, we controlled 180,352 lots, of which 91,363 were owned and 88,989 were under land option agreements.
Sales and marketing
We are dedicated to improving the quality and value of our homes through innovative architectural and community designs. Analyzing various qualitative and quantitative data obtained through extensive market research, we stratify our potential customers into well-defined homebuyer groups. Such stratification provides a method for understanding the business opportunities and risks across the full spectrum of consumer groups in each market. Once the needs of potential homebuyers are understood, we link our home design and community development efforts to the specific lifestyle of each consumer group. Through our understanding of each consumer group, we seek to provide homes that better meet the needs and wants of each homebuyer.
Our homes targeted to first-time homebuyers tend to be smaller with product offerings geared toward lower average selling prices and higher density. Move-up homebuyers tend to place more of a premium on location and amenities. These communities typically offer larger homes at higher price points. Through our Del Webb brand, we address the needs of active adults. Many of these active adult communities are age-restricted to homebuyers aged fifty-five and over and are highly amenitized, offering a variety of features, including athletic facilities, recreational centers, and educational classes, to facilitate the homebuyer maintaining an active lifestyle. In order to make the cost of these highly amenitized communities affordable to the individual homeowner, Del Webb communities tend to be larger than first-time or move-up homebuyer communities. During 2020, 31%, 45%, and 24% of our home closings were to first-time, move-up, and active adult customers, respectively, which reflects a slight increase toward first-time buyers since 2019 consistent with our continued investment in serving first-time buyers.
We believe that we are an innovator in home design, and we view our design capabilities as an integral aspect of our marketing strategy. Our in-house architectural services teams, supplemented by outside consultants, follow a disciplined product development process to introduce new features and technologies based on customer-validated data. Following this disciplined process results in distinctive design features, both in exterior facades and interior options and features. We typically offer a variety of house floor plans and elevations in each community, including potential options and upgrades, such as different flooring, countertop, fixture, and appliance choices, and design our base house and option packages to meet the needs of our
customers as defined through rigorous market research. Energy efficiency represents an important source of value for new homes compared with existing homes and represents a key area of focus for our home designs, including high efficiency heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems and insulation, low-emissivity windows, solar power in certain geographies, and other energy-efficient features.
We market our homes to prospective homebuyers through internet listings and link placements, mobile applications, media advertising, illustrated brochures, and other advertising displays. We have made significant enhancements in our tools and business practices to adapt our selling efforts to today's tech-enabled customers. This includes our websites (www.centex.com, www.pulte.com, www.delwebb.com, www.divosta.com, www.americanwesthomes.com, and www.jwhomes.com), which provide tools to help users find a home that meets their needs, investigate financing alternatives, communicate moving plans, maintain a home, learn more about us, and communicate directly with us.
Our sales teams consist primarily of commissioned employees, and the majority of our home closings also involve independent third-party sales brokers. Our sales consultants are responsible for guiding the customer through the sales process, including selecting the community, house floor plan, and options that meet the customer's needs. We are committed to industry-leading customer service through a variety of quality initiatives, including our customer care program, which seeks to ensure that homebuyers are engaged and satisfied at every stage of the process. Fully furnished and landscaped model homes physically located in our communities, which leverage the expertise of our interior designers, are generally used to showcase our homes and their distinctive design features. We have also introduced virtual reality walkthroughs of our house floor plans in certain communities to provide prospective homebuyers a more cost-effective means to provide a realistic vision of our homes.
The majority of our homes are sold on a built-to-order basis where we do not begin construction of the home until we have a signed contract with a customer. However, we also build speculative ("spec") homes in most of our communities, which allow us to compete more effectively with existing homes available in the market, especially for homebuyers that require a home within a short time frame. We determine our spec home strategy for each community based on local market factors and maintain a level of spec home inventory based on our current and planned sales pace and construction cadence for the community.
Our sales contracts with customers generally require payment of a deposit at the time of contract signing and sometimes additional deposits upon selection of certain options or upgrade features for their homes. Our sales contracts also typically include a financing contingency that provides customers with the right to cancel if they cannot obtain mortgage financing at specified interest rates within a specified period. Our contracts may also include other contingencies, such as the sale of an existing home. Backlog, which represents orders for homes that have not yet closed, was $6.8 billion (15,158 units) at December 31, 2020 and $4.5 billion (10,507 units) at December 31, 2019. For orders in backlog, we have received a signed customer contract and customer deposit, which is refundable in certain instances. Of the orders in backlog at December 31, 2020, substantially all are scheduled to be closed during 2021, though all orders are subject to potential cancellation by or final negotiations with the customer. In the event of contract cancellation, the majority of our sales contracts stipulate that we have the right to retain the customer’s deposit, though we may choose to refund the deposit in certain instances.
Construction
The construction of our homes is conducted under the supervision of our on-site construction field managers. Substantially all of our construction work is performed by independent subcontractors under contracts that establish a specific scope of work at an agreed-upon price. Using a selective process, we have aligned with what we believe are premier subcontractors and suppliers to deliver quality throughout all aspects of the house construction process. In addition, our construction field managers and customer care associates interact with our homebuyers throughout the construction process and instruct homebuyers on post-closing home maintenance.
Continuous improvement in our house construction process is a key area of focus. We seek to build superior quality homes while maintaining efficient construction operations by using standard materials and components from a variety of sources and by following industry and company-specific construction practices. We maintain high quality product offerings and production processes through the following programs:
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Common management of house plans to deliver house designs that customers value the most and that can be built at the highest quality and at an efficient cost;
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Value engineering our house plans to optimize house designs in terms of material content and ease of construction while still providing a clear value to the customer;
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Utilizing our proprietary construction standards and practices, training of our field leadership and construction personnel, communication with our suppliers, and auditing our compliance through the use of both internal and third party construction experts; and
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Working with our suppliers using a data driven, collaborative method to reduce construction costs.
Generally, the construction materials used in our operations are readily available from numerous sources. However, the cost of certain building materials, especially lumber, steel, concrete, copper, and petroleum-based materials, is influenced by changes in global commodity prices, national tariffs, and other foreign trade factors. Additionally, the ability to consistently source qualified labor at reasonable prices remains challenging as labor supply growth has not kept pace with construction demand. To protect against changes in construction costs, labor and materials costs are generally established prior to or near the time when related sales contracts are signed with customers. In addition, we leverage our size by actively negotiating for certain materials on a national or regional basis to minimize costs. We are also working to establish a more integrated system that can effectively link suppliers, contractors, and the production schedule. However, we cannot determine the extent to which necessary building materials and labor will be available at reasonable prices in the future.
Competition
The housing industry in the U.S. is fragmented and highly competitive. While we are one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S., our national market share represented only approximately 3% of U.S. new home sales in 2020. In each of our local markets, there are numerous national, regional, and local homebuilders with whom we compete. Additionally, new home sales have traditionally represented less than 15% of overall U.S. home sales (new and existing homes). Therefore, we also compete with sales of existing house inventory and any provider of for sale or rental housing units, including apartment operators. We compete primarily on the basis of location, price, quality, reputation, design, community amenities, and our customers' overall sales and homeownership experiences.
Seasonality
Although significant changes in market conditions have impacted our seasonal patterns in the past and could do so again, we historically experience variability in our quarterly results from operations due to the seasonal nature of the homebuilding industry. We generally experience increases in revenues and cash flow from operations during the fourth quarter based on the timing of home closings. This seasonal activity increases our working capital requirements in our third and fourth quarters to support our home production and loan origination volumes. As a result of the seasonality of our operations, our quarterly results of operations are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the full year. Additionally, given the disruption in economic activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, our quarterly results in 2020 are not necessarily indicative of results that may be achieved in the future.
Regulation and environmental matters
Our operations are subject to extensive regulations imposed and enforced by various federal, state, and local governing authorities. These regulations are complex and include building codes, land zoning and other entitlement restrictions, health and safety regulations, labor practices, marketing and sales practices, environmental regulations, rules and regulations relating to mortgage financing and title operations, and various other laws, rules, and regulations. Collectively, these regulations have a significant impact on the site selection and development of our communities; our house design and construction techniques; our relationships with customers, employees, suppliers, and subcontractors; and many other aspects of our business. The applicable governing authorities frequently have broad discretion in administering these regulations, including inspections of our homes prior to closing with the customer in the majority of municipalities in which we operate. Additionally, we may experience extended timelines for receiving required approvals from municipalities or other government agencies that can delay our anticipated development and construction activities in our communities.
Financial Services Operations
We conduct our financial services business, which includes mortgage banking, title, and insurance brokerage operations, through Pulte Mortgage and other subsidiaries. Pulte Mortgage arranges financing through the origination of mortgage loans primarily for the benefit of our homebuyers. We are a lender approved by the Federal Housing Administration ("FHA") and Department of Veterans Affairs ("VA") and are a seller/servicer approved by Government National Mortgage Association ("Ginnie Mae"), Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae"), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac"), and other investors. In our conventional mortgage lending activities, we follow underwriting guidelines established by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and private investors. We believe that our customers’ use of our in-house mortgage and title operations provides us with a competitive advantage by enabling more control over the quality of the overall home buying process for our customers, while also helping us align the timing of the house construction process with our customers’ financing needs.
Operating through a captive business model targeted to supporting our Homebuilding operations, the business levels of our Financial Services operations are highly correlated to Homebuilding. Our Homebuilding customers continue to account for substantially all of our loan production. We originated the mortgage loans for 73% of the homes we closed in 2020, 67% in 2019, and 62% in 2018. Other home closings are settled via either cash, which typically represent approximately 20% of home closings, or third party lenders.
In originating mortgage loans, we initially use our own funds, including funds available pursuant to credit agreements with third parties, and subsequently sell such mortgage loans to third party investors in the secondary market. Substantially all of the loans we originate are sold in the secondary market within a short period of time after origination, generally within 30 days. We also sell the servicing rights for the loans we originate through fixed price servicing sales contracts to reduce the risks and costs inherent in servicing loans. This strategy results in owning the loans and related servicing rights for only a short period of time.
The mortgage industry in the U.S. is highly competitive. We compete with other mortgage companies and financial institutions to provide attractive mortgage financing to our homebuyers. We utilize a centralized fulfillment center for our mortgage operations that performs underwriting, processing, and closing functions. We believe centralizing both the fulfillment and origination of our loans improves the speed, efficiency, and quality of our mortgage operations, improving our profitability and allowing us to focus on providing attractive mortgage financing opportunities for our customers.
In originating and servicing mortgage loans, we are subject to the rules and regulations of the government-sponsored investors and other investors that purchase the loans we originate, as well as to those of other government agencies that have oversight of the government-sponsored investors or consumer lending rules in the U.S. In addition to being affected by changes in these programs, our mortgage banking business is also affected by many of the same factors that impact our homebuilding business.
Our mortgage operations may be responsible for losses associated with mortgage loans originated and sold to investors in the event of errors or omissions relating to representations and warranties made by us that the loans met certain requirements, including representations as to underwriting standards, the existence of primary mortgage insurance, and the validity of certain borrower representations in connection with the loan. If a loan is determined to be faulty, we either indemnify the investor for potential future losses, repurchase the loan from the investor, or reimburse the investor's actual losses.
Our subsidiary title insurance companies serve as title insurance agents and underwriters in select markets by providing title insurance policies and examination and closing services to buyers of homes we sell. Historically, we have not experienced significant claims related to our title operations.
Our insurance brokerage operations serve as a broker for home, auto, and other personal insurance policies in select markets to buyers of homes we sell. All such insurance policies are placed with third party insurance carriers.
Human Capital Resources
The Company's key human capital management objectives are to attract, develop, and retain top industry talent that reflects the diversity of the communities in which we build. To support this goal, the Company's human resources programs are designed to develop talent to prepare for key roles and leadership positions for the future; reward employees through competitive industry pay, benefits, and other programs; instill the Company's culture with a focus on diversity and ethical behavior; and enhance our employees' performance through investment in current technology, tools, and training to enable our employees to operate at a
high level. The Company's commitment to the aforementioned goals is evidenced through its certification as a Great Place to Work® and recent formation of a national diversity council.
At December 31, 2020, we employed 5,249 people, of which 945 were employed in our Financial Services operations. Of our homebuilding employees, 282 are involved in land acquisition and development functions, 1,752 are involved in construction and and post-closing customer care functions; 1,189 are involved in the sales function; and 1,081 are involved in procurement, corporate, and other functions. Our employees are not represented by any union. Contracted work, however, may be performed by union contractors. We consider our employee relations to be good.
We offer our employees a broad range of company-paid benefits, and we believe our compensation package and benefits are competitive with others in our industry.
Our management team supports a culture of developing future leaders from our existing workforce, enabling us to promote from within for many leadership positions. We believe this provides long-term focus and continuity to our operations while also providing opportunities for the growth and advancement of our employees. Our focus on retention is evident in the length of service of our executive, area, and divisional management teams. The average tenure of our executive team and homebuilding area presidents is 20 years and the average tenure of our homebuilding division presidents is 15 years.
We are committed to hiring, developing and supporting a diverse and inclusive workplace. Our management teams are expected to exhibit and promote honest, ethical and respectful conduct in the workplace. All of our employees must adhere to a code of conduct that sets standards for appropriate ethical behavior.