Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Receives $215.14 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $215.14.

A number of analysts have commented on MTH shares. Wedbush raised Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. 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 research note on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $197.00 price target (down from $220.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Raymond James downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes in the third quarter worth about $28,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 53.6% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 172 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in Meritage Homes in the second quarter worth $61,000. Finally, Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new stake in Meritage Homes during the second quarter valued at $64,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Stock Up 1.0 %

MTH stock opened at $156.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $5.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.07 and a beta of 1.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. The business’s 50-day moving average is $181.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $184.19. Meritage Homes has a fifty-two week low of $147.77 and a fifty-two week high of $213.98.

Meritage Homes’s stock is going to split before the market opens on Friday, January 3rd. The 2-1 split was announced on Monday, November 25th. The newly minted shares will be distributed 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 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.63% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.98 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. Meritage Homes’s 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.