Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Receives $218.17 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $218.17.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MTH. Raymond James cut shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Wolfe Research raised Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Wedbush upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $160.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MTH. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes during the third quarter worth $28,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 53.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 172 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 1,033.3% in the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 272 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Meritage Homes during the second quarter worth about $61,000. Finally, Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Meritage Homes during the second quarter worth about $64,000. Institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE MTH opened at $191.07 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.65 and a beta of 1.82. Meritage Homes has a 52 week low of $137.70 and a 52 week high of $213.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $190.91 and a 200-day moving average of $184.66.

Meritage Homes shares are going to split on the morning of Friday, January 3rd. The 2-1 split was announced on Monday, November 25th. The newly minted shares will be issued to shareholders after the market closes on Tuesday, December 31st.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.29. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $5.98 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is 13.58%.

About Meritage Homes

Meritage Homes Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs and builds single-family attached and detached homes in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Homebuilding and Financial Services. It acquires and develops land; and constructs, markets, and sells homes for entry-level and first move-up buyers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah, Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.