Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday as homebuilding revenue slumped and it wrote down the value of its land holdings.

Toll shares were down 2.5 percent in premarket trading, but FTN Securities analyst Joel said any sell-off should be constrained by long-term investor confidence in the company.

The balance sheet is why most of the holders are in, Locker said.

Toll's fiscal fourth-quarter net loss was $111.4 million, or 68 cents a share, compared with a loss of $78.8 million, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier. Homebuilding revenue dropped 30 percent to $486.6 million.

Analysts expected, on average, a loss of 46 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The choppiness in demand that began after Labor Day, following a stronger period from late March through late August, has continued, said Chief Executive Bob Toll, citing the usual seasonal slowdown.

But Credit Suisse analyst Dan Oppenheim said traffic has slowed more than normal. We think that part of the choppiness is a function of a natural slowing following the initial rebound in the fiscal third quarter, likely due to pent-up demand, he wrote in a note to clients.

Toll Brothers said its loss included $85.5 million of pretax non-cash inventory write-downs and a pretax charge of $11.6 million from the early retirement of debt.

Impairment charges were lower than the $179.5 million the company took in last year's fourth quarter and also lower than some analysts expected. But more such charges will likely hit the company as land prices continue to decline. Oppenheim sees $210 million in additional impairments.

Net signed contracts for the quarter, which ended October 31, were 765 units, up 42 percent from last year.

The company said its contract cancellation rate was 6.9 percent in the quarter, in line with its pre-downturn historical averages.

(Reporting by Helen Chernikoff and Deepti Govind; editing by John Wallace)

Credit Suisse