Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Receives $109.56 Average Target Price from Brokerages

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

MTH has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $98.50 price objective (down previously from $110.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Raymond James cut Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of Meritage Homes from $105.00 to $99.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $103.00 target price (down from $205.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 11th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meritage Homes

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

Meritage Homes Price Performance

Shares of MTH opened at $80.61 on Tuesday. 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 capitalization of $5.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.30 and a beta of 1.87. The business’s 50-day moving average is $87.68 and its 200-day moving average is $92.51. Meritage Homes has a fifty-two week low of $73.05 and a fifty-two week high of $106.99.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.99 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Meritage Homes will post 11.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a $0.375 dividend. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.