Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) Receives $84.86 Consensus PT from Analysts

Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twelve ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $84.8571.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Meritage Homes in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $70.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Wedbush decreased their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $103.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $77.00 to $75.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Zelman & Associates upgraded shares of Meritage Homes to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Dennis V. Arriola purchased 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $70.00 per share, with a total value of $154,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 9,512 shares in the company, valued at $665,840. This trade represents a 30.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 6,950 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total value of $556,069.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 221,320 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,707,813.20. This represents a 3.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 96.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,999,889 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $567,032,000 after acquiring an additional 3,925,148 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 93.9% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,926,900 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $207,456,000 after acquiring an additional 1,417,024 shares during the period. Greenhaven Associates Inc. increased its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 4.0% during the second quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 1,491,955 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $99,916,000 after acquiring an additional 57,587 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 58.9% during the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,423,013 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $95,299,000 after acquiring an additional 527,265 shares during the period. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC raised its position in Meritage Homes by 95.7% in the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,352,648 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $95,876,000 after acquiring an additional 661,310 shares in the last quarter. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of MTH stock opened at $70.45 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $74.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $70.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.16. Meritage Homes has a 1 year low of $59.27 and a 1 year high of $101.59. The firm has a market cap of $5.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.34 and a beta of 1.42.

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

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 16th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.47%.

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.