Natixis Advisors LLC Purchases 382 Shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

Natixis Advisors LLC grew its position in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 3.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,504 shares of the construction company’s stock after acquiring an additional 382 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $2,564,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MTH. Comerica Bank increased its stake in Meritage Homes by 5.9% in the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 79,358 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $13,924,000 after acquiring an additional 4,435 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 204.5% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 13,378 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,165,000 after buying an additional 8,985 shares during the period. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in Meritage Homes in the 1st quarter valued at $23,106,000. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Meritage Homes in the first quarter valued at $25,495,000. Finally, Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its stake in Meritage Homes by 18.2% during the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 37,697 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $6,101,000 after acquiring an additional 5,796 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Meritage Homes Trading Up 3.8 %

MTH stock opened at $184.44 on Monday. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $137.70 and a twelve month high of $213.98. The company has a market cap of $6.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.35 and a beta of 1.82. The business has a fifty day moving average of $192.28 and a 200-day moving average of $184.31.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced 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. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.63% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $5.98 EPS. Meritage Homes’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.27 EPS 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is 13.58%.

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.