67,750 Shares in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Purchased by Vision Capital Corp

Vision Capital Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 67,750 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,893,000. Meritage Homes makes up approximately 2.2% of Vision Capital Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CWM LLC lifted its position 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 in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 53.6% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 172 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 2,288 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $370,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,719 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $558,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaMark Advisors LLC boosted its position in Meritage Homes by 5.4% during the second quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 1,842 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $298,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the period. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Meritage Homes stock opened at $187.51 on Monday. Meritage Homes Co. has a 52-week low of $137.70 and a 52-week high of $213.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $192.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $184.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.35 and a beta of 1.82.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.63% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $5.98 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.58%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Raymond James downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Wedbush upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meritage Homes currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $218.17.

Meritage Homes 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.