Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Receives $178.25 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $178.25.

Several equities research analysts have commented on MTH shares. Wedbush reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $148.00 target price on shares of Meritage Homes in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Meritage Homes from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th.

Institutional Trading of Meritage Homes

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Meritage Homes by 64.6% in the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 3,617 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $439,000 after acquiring an additional 1,420 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 43.3% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 118,638 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $14,520,000 after purchasing an additional 35,849 shares during the last quarter. Mariner LLC lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 9.7% in the third quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 3,726 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $456,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP acquired a new position in Meritage Homes during the third quarter worth $2,096,000. Finally, Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in Meritage Homes in the third quarter valued at $3,243,000. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meritage Homes Stock Down 0.9 %

NYSE:MTH opened at $154.70 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $171.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $165.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.22 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Meritage Homes has a 12-month low of $109.23 and a 12-month high of $189.96.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The construction company reported $5.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 17.63% and a net margin of 12.54%. Equities research analysts expect that Meritage Homes will post 20.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.99%.

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.