Creative Planning Grows Stock Holdings in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 31.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,113 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 3,107 shares during the quarter. Creative Planning’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $2,689,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 1,033.3% during the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 272 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in Meritage Homes during the 2nd quarter worth $61,000. Picton Mahoney Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes in the second quarter valued at about $64,000. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC boosted its position in Meritage Homes by 149.6% in the 1st quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 694 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $122,000 after buying an additional 416 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MTH has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Meritage Homes from $219.00 to $221.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $173.00 to $197.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meritage Homes has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $213.83.

Meritage Homes Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:MTH opened at $182.84 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.04 and a beta of 1.80. Meritage Homes Co. has a 12 month low of $109.23 and a 12 month high of $213.98. The company’s 50 day moving average is $196.96 and its 200-day moving average is $181.38. The company has a quick ratio of 1.93, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The construction company reported $6.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.17 by $1.14. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.57 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 12.98%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $5.02 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.09 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is presently 13.20%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meritage Homes

In other news, CFO Hilla Sferruzza sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.00, for a total transaction of $512,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 44,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,136,850. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

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.