L & S Advisors Inc Acquires Shares of 6,524 Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

L & S Advisors Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 6,524 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,338,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 734.4% in the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 272,122 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $55,804,000 after buying an additional 239,511 shares in the last quarter. Long Pond Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes in the first quarter worth about $32,303,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes in the first quarter worth about $25,495,000. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes in the second quarter worth about $22,887,000. Finally, Boston Partners purchased a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes in the first quarter worth about $23,106,000. 98.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of MTH stock opened at $177.68 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $192.66 and a 200 day moving average of $184.19. Meritage Homes Co. has a 52 week low of $137.70 and a 52 week high of $213.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.04 and a beta of 1.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.29. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.58%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Wedbush upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Raymond James cut shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $205.00 to $235.00 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Meritage Homes presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $218.17.

Meritage Homes 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.