HORSHAM, Pa., April 7, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE:TOL), (www.tollbrothers.com), the nation's leading builder of luxury homes, today announced its entry into the Fortune 500 of America's Largest Companies. Fortune magazine highlighted Toll Brothers, No. 477 in the group (based on revenues), for its revenue growth of 40% and net income growth of 57.5% in FY 2004 and its 25% average annual growth rate in shareholders' equity since 1994. The Company ranked No. 264 in the Fortune 500 in FY 2004 net income, No. 107 in FY 2004 net profit margin and No. 36 among all companies in ten-year earnings per share growth, producing a 25% compound average annual rate of EPS growth from 1994 to 2004. Within the Fortune 500, the Company's Total Return to Investors ranked No. 27 and No. 20 for FY 2004 and the ten-year period from 1994 to 2004, respectively.
Fortune further spotlighted Toll Brothers in a five-page article entitled, "New King of the Real Estate Boom," noting, "With housing sales soaring, homebuilders are the toast of this year's Fortune 500 -- and none is riding higher than luxury specialist Toll Brothers." The article continued: "Toll has constructed an organization with a level of specialization and efficiency that is unmatched in the business."
Robert I. Toll, chairman and chief executive officer of Toll Brothers, stated: "Becoming a member of the Fortune 500 is solely as a result of the outstanding efforts of all Toll Brothers associates. We have achieved this growth in size and profits by sticking to our formula. We have remained focused on the luxury market. We have diversified both geographically and across luxury product lines. And we have set, as our highest priority, the providing of excellent customer service and luxurious homes and communities to our buyers. With projected growth in revenues of greater than 35% and in net income of approximately 60% in FY 2005, we hope to continue to rise in the Fortune 500."
"Toll Brothers and ten other publicly traded home building companies are members of the 2005 Fortune 500; four other home building companies are in the Fortune 1000. This highlights the growth and increased sophistication of these large, public firms. It is a testament, we believe, to their evolution from regional players dependent on local economies, to diversified home building companies with national scope, and diversified land portfolios and geographic operations that enable them to manage risk as capably as any other major U.S. industries. In an economic environment defined primarily by the recent multi-year recession, FORTUNE notes that through 2004 'home builders rank first among all industries in five-year return to investors. ...'"
Toll Brothers, Inc. is the nation's leading builder of luxury homes. The Company began business in 1967 and became a public company in 1986. Its common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Pacific Exchange under the symbol "TOL." The Company serves move-up, empty-nester, active-adult and second-home home buyers and operates in 20 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.
Toll Brothers builds luxury single-family detached and attached home communities, master planned luxury residential resort-style golf communities and urban low, mid- and high-rise communities, principally on land it develops and improves. The Company operates its own architectural, engineering, mortgage, title, land development and land sale, golf course development and management, home security, landscape, cable T.V. and broadband Internet delivery subsidiaries. The Company also operates its own lumber distribution, and house component assembly and manufacturing operations.
Toll Brothers is the only publicly traded national home building company to have won all three of the industry's highest honors: America's Best Builder from the National Association of Home Builders, the National Housing Quality Award and Builder of the Year. For more information visit www.tollbrothers.com.
Certain information included herein and in other Company reports, SEC filings, statements and presentations is forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements concerning anticipated operating results, financial resources, changes in revenues, changes in profitability, interest expense, growth and expansion, anticipated income from joint ventures and the Toll Brothers Realty Trusts Group, the ability to acquire land, the ability to secure governmental approvals and the ability to open new communities, the ability to sell homes and properties, the ability to deliver homes from backlog, the average delivered price of homes, the ability to secure materials and subcontractors, the ability to maintain the liquidity and capital necessary to expand and take advantage of future opportunities, and stock market valuations. Such forward-looking information involves important risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect actual results and cause them to differ materially from expectations expressed herein and in other Company reports, SEC filings, statements and presentations. These risks and uncertainties include local, regional and national economic conditions, the demand for homes, domestic and international political events, uncertainties created by terrorist attacks, the effects of governmental regulation, the competitive environment in which the Company operates, fluctuations in interest rates, changes in home prices, the availability and cost of land for future growth, the availability of capital, uncertainties and fluctuations in capital and securities markets, changes in tax laws and their interpretation, legal proceedings, the availability of adequate insurance at reasonable cost, the ability of customers to finance the purchase of homes, the availability and cost of labor and materials, and weather conditions.