JPMorgan Chase & Co. Reaffirms Neutral Rating for Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH)

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reissued by stock analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a research report issued on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $197.00 price objective on the construction company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $220.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 16.96% from the company’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on MTH. Wedbush raised shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Raymond James lowered shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, 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 note on Tuesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $215.14.

Meritage Homes Stock Down 5.1 %

Shares of NYSE:MTH opened at $168.43 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.62 and a beta of 1.82. Meritage Homes has a 12-month low of $147.77 and a 12-month high of $213.98. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $186.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $184.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Shares of Meritage Homes are scheduled to split on the morning of Friday, January 3rd. The 2-1 split was announced on Monday, November 25th. The newly created shares will be payable to shareholders after the closing bell on Tuesday, December 31st.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion during 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%. Meritage Homes’s revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $5.98 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC purchased a new position in shares of Meritage Homes during the third quarter worth about $16,056,000. Castellan Group boosted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Castellan Group now owns 31,981 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $6,558,000 after purchasing an additional 1,516 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Meritage Homes during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $230,000. M&T Bank Corp acquired a new position in Meritage Homes during the third quarter worth approximately $435,000. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 18.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 211,043 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $43,279,000 after acquiring an additional 32,810 shares during the period. 98.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.