Assetmark Inc. Acquires 60 Shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 53.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 172 shares of the construction company’s stock after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the quarter. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $35,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Comerica Bank raised its position in Meritage Homes by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 79,358 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $13,924,000 after purchasing an additional 4,435 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 204.5% in the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 13,378 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $2,165,000 after acquiring an additional 8,985 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Meritage Homes during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,495,000. Boston Partners bought a new position in Meritage Homes during the 1st quarter worth approximately $23,106,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Meritage Homes in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,359,000. Institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. StockNews.com cut Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Wedbush raised shares of 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 report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Meritage Homes currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $218.17.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

Meritage Homes stock opened at $177.36 on Tuesday. Meritage Homes Co. has a 52 week low of $137.70 and a 52 week high of $213.98. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $193.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $184.27. The stock has a market cap of $6.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.03 and a beta of 1.82. 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 (NYSE:MTH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $5.98 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.58%.

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.