Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $218.17.

MTH has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Wolfe Research raised Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Wedbush upgraded 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 report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Raymond James lowered Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MTH opened at $184.44 on Monday. 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 cap of $6.67 billion, a PE ratio of 8.35 and a beta of 1.82. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $192.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $184.31. Meritage Homes has a 1-year low of $137.70 and a 1-year high of $213.98.

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

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.58%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meritage Homes

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. CWM LLC lifted 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 buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 53.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 172 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in Meritage Homes by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 2,288 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $370,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position in Meritage Homes by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,719 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $558,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AlphaMark Advisors LLC raised its stake in Meritage Homes by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 1,842 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $298,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

About Meritage Homes

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.