shares of dr horton inc dhi leapt 18 toward a 15month high in premarket trading thursday after the homebuilder reported big fiscal secondquarter profit and revenue beats as demand improved during the quarter despite higher mortgage rates net income for the quarter to march 31 fell to 9422 million or 273 a share from 144 billion or 403 a share in the yearago quarter but that was well above the factset consensus of 193 revenue declined 03 to 797 billion but was well above the factset consensus of 645 billion net sales orders fell 5 to 23142 homes while the value of orders dropped 11 to 86 billion but that beat expectations for orders of 19792 and value of 714 billion pretax profit margin contracted to 156 from 235 due to a 73 decline in home sales gross margin and a 05 increase in homebuilding expense as a percent of revenue for the full fiscal year the company expects revenue of 315 billion to 330 billion above the factset consensus 284 billion the stock has rallied 143 year to date through wednesday while the ishares us home construction exchangetraded fund itb has run up 203 and the sp 500 spx has gained 82