Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Earns “Neutral” Rating from Wedbush

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reissued by stock analysts at Wedbush in a research note issued on Tuesday,RTT News reports. They currently have a $103.00 target price on the construction company’s stock, down from their prior target price of $205.00. Wedbush’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 38.22% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently commented on MTH. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $98.50 price objective (down from $110.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Meritage Homes from $105.00 to $99.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $102.50 to $117.50 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Raymond James cut shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $108.36.

Meritage Homes Stock Down 0.8 %

MTH stock traded down $0.63 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $74.52. The stock had a trading volume of 944,151 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,203,788. The business has a 50-day moving average of $90.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $92.78. 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 firm has a market cap of $5.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 1.87. Meritage Homes has a 52-week low of $73.89 and a 52-week high of $106.99.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $2.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 12.63% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The business’s revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meritage Homes

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 65.7% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 17,259 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $3,539,000 after purchasing an additional 6,843 shares in the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 18.2% in the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 37,697 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $6,101,000 after acquiring an additional 5,796 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC grew its position in Meritage Homes by 49.4% in the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 33,489 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $5,420,000 after acquiring an additional 11,072 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in Meritage Homes by 141.5% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 102,900 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $16,654,000 after acquiring an additional 60,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 32.1% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 47,546 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $9,750,000 after purchasing an additional 11,558 shares during the last quarter. 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.