Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $218.17.

MTH has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Wedbush raised shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $160.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of 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, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meritage Homes

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 433 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $89,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in Meritage Homes by 53.6% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 172 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. raised its holdings in Meritage Homes by 2.9% in the second quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 2,288 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $370,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 2.5% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,719 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $558,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaMark Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 1,842 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $298,000 after buying an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of MTH opened at $191.07 on Monday. 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 52-week low of $137.70 and a 52-week high of $213.98. The company has a market cap of $6.91 billion, a PE ratio of 8.64 and a beta of 1.82. The business has a fifty day moving average of $191.15 and a 200 day moving average of $184.56.

Shares of Meritage Homes 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 closing bell on Tuesday, December 31st.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion for 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.98 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is presently 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.