Blue Trust Inc. Decreases Holdings in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

Blue Trust Inc. trimmed its holdings in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 71.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 329 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 824 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $51,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MTH. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 53.6% during 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 during the period. Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in Meritage Homes by 125.2% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 509 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $104,000 after buying an additional 283 shares during the last quarter. Archer Investment Corp boosted its position in Meritage Homes by 42.1% during the 3rd quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 675 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $138,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. grew its holdings in Meritage Homes by 3,044.8% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 912 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $187,000 after acquiring an additional 883 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 18.7% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 986 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $202,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MTH has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their target price on Meritage Homes from $126.00 to $118.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on Meritage Homes from $117.50 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $103.00 price objective on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $98.50 price target (down from $110.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $106.25.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of MTH stock opened at $76.07 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The company has a market cap of $5.46 billion, a PE ratio of 5.82 and a beta of 1.88. Meritage Homes Co. has a 12-month low of $71.05 and a 12-month high of $106.99. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $80.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $89.83.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The construction company reported $4.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.55 by $0.17. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.29% and a return on equity of 15.90%. Analysts expect that Meritage Homes Co. will post 9.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. This is a boost from Meritage Homes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.26%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.16%.

Insider Activity at Meritage Homes

In other news, Chairman Steven J. Hilton purchased 11,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $74.51 per share, with a total value of $819,610.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chairman now directly owns 811,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,441,915.92. The trade was a 1.37 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Clinton Szubinski sold 595 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.29, for a total transaction of $43,607.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 30,547 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,238,789.63. This represents a 1.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,683 shares of company stock worth $122,547 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

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.