Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Price Target Cut to $90.00 by Analysts at Wedbush

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) had its target price lowered by Wedbush from $103.00 to $90.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the construction company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. UBS Group set a $107.00 price target on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $90.00 to $77.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $89.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Monday, May 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $82.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $95.11.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

NYSE MTH opened at $69.72 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.01 billion, a PE ratio of 6.27 and a beta of 1.37. Meritage Homes has a fifty-two week low of $59.27 and a fifty-two week high of $106.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.28 and a current ratio of 2.16. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $67.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $70.53.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The construction company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.99 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.60 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 12.37% and a net margin of 10.27%. Meritage Homes’s quarterly revenue was down 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.15 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Meritage Homes will post 9.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.47%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Joseph Keough acquired 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $66.16 per share, for a total transaction of $264,640.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 41,700 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,758,872. This represents a 10.61% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meritage Homes

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 41.9% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,423 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $219,000 after purchasing an additional 420 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 47,699 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $7,337,000 after purchasing an additional 4,397 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,154,000. LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 56.1% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 10,265 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,579,000 after purchasing an additional 3,687 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,074,741 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $626,777,000 after purchasing an additional 26,889 shares during the last quarter. 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.