Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Downgraded to Sell Rating by StockNews.com

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) was downgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of Meritage Homes from $105.00 to $99.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Raymond James cut Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $103.00 price objective (down previously from $205.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $102.50 to $117.50 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on Meritage Homes from $126.00 to $118.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $109.56.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

NYSE:MTH opened at $74.07 on Friday. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $89.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $92.51. The company has a market cap of $2.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 1.82. Meritage Homes has a 52-week low of $73.05 and a 52-week high of $106.99.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $2.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The firm’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 company posted $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meritage Homes

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MTH. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new position in Meritage Homes during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 53.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 172 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 1,033.3% in the 2nd 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 period. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Meritage Homes in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $61,000. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 433 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.