UBS Group Cuts Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Price Target to $118.00

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) had its price target dropped by UBS Group from $126.00 to $118.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the construction company’s stock. UBS Group’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 60.76% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $103.00 price target (down from $205.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Meritage Homes from $105.00 to $99.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $102.50 to $117.50 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Raymond James lowered shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $98.50 price target (down from $110.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a report on Friday, December 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meritage Homes presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $109.56.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MTH traded down $1.09 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $73.40. The stock had a trading volume of 19,730 shares, compared to its average volume of 963,390. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Meritage Homes has a 12-month low of $73.40 and a 12-month high of $106.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.87. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $90.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $92.74.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $2.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.63% and a return on equity of 16.89%. Meritage Homes’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.99 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MTH. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 433 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. 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 acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 2,288 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $370,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its holdings in Meritage Homes by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,719 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $558,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System raised its position in Meritage Homes by 1.1% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 10,126 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,639,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

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.