Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Issues FY24 Earnings Guidance

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) issued an update on its FY24 earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $19.20-20.70 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.84. The company issued revenue guidance of $6.0-6.2 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $6.07 billion. Meritage Homes also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 19.200-20.700 EPS.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Meritage Homes stock traded up $10.41 during trading on Thursday, hitting $165.10. The stock had a trading volume of 507,271 shares, compared to its average volume of 400,883. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $159.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $152.49. Meritage Homes has a 1 year low of $109.23 and a 1 year high of $179.68. The stock has a market cap of $6.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.25 and a beta of 1.77.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The construction company reported $5.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.54 by $1.52. The firm had revenue of $1.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.03% and a return on equity of 17.03%. As a group, analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 17.78 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Meritage Homes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is currently 15.06%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MTH has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Zelman & Associates upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Meritage Homes from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Wedbush restated an underperform rating and set a $148.00 target price on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $151.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Meritage Homes from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $172.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Alison Sasser sold 355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.61, for a total value of $54,176.55. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $132,618.09. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Alison Sasser sold 355 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.61, for a total value of $54,176.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 869 shares in the company, valued at approximately $132,618.09. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Clinton Szubinski sold 797 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.62, for a total value of $121,638.14. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 5,234 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $798,813.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 3,998 shares of company stock valued at $635,171. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Company Profile

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.