Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Sets New 52-Week Low Following Analyst Downgrade

Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) shares hit a new 52-week low on Wednesday after UBS Group lowered their price target on the stock from $126.00 to $118.00. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Meritage Homes traded as low as $73.16 and last traded at $73.39, with a volume of 33217 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $74.49.

MTH has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $103.00 price target (down previously from $205.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Raymond James cut shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $102.50 to $117.50 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of Meritage Homes from $105.00 to $99.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $109.56.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MTH. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 244,776 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $50,196,000 after purchasing an additional 21,092 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meritage Homes in the third quarter worth about $16,056,000. Castellan Group increased its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 5.0% in the third quarter. Castellan Group now owns 31,981 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $6,558,000 after acquiring an additional 1,516 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes during the third quarter valued at approximately $230,000. Finally, M&T Bank Corp acquired a new position in Meritage Homes in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $435,000. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

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 company has a market cap of $5.34 billion, a PE ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $90.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $92.74.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $2.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.99 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.03%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.59%.

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.