Brokerages Set Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) PT at $109.56

Shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $107.38.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MTH shares. Raymond James lowered shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com lowered Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, January 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $98.50 price target (down from $110.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $103.00 price objective (down previously from $205.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on Meritage Homes from $126.00 to $118.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meritage Homes

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new stake in Meritage Homes during the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 1,033.3% in the 2nd quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 272 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $61,000. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its stake in Meritage Homes by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 433 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. 98.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of MTH opened at $80.61 on Tuesday. Meritage Homes has a 1 year low of $73.05 and a 1 year high of $106.99. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $87.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $92.51. The company has a market capitalization of $5.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.30 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $2.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.15. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.99 EPS. Meritage Homes’s revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 11.59 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.375 per share. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.58%.

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.