Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $106.25.

MTH has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $103.00 price objective on shares of Meritage Homes in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $126.00 to $118.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of Meritage Homes from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and set a $98.50 target price (down from $110.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Meritage Homes from $117.50 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of MTH opened at $73.29 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.61 and a beta of 1.88. The company’s fifty day moving average is $82.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $91.17. Meritage Homes has a 1 year low of $72.19 and a 1 year high of $106.99.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The construction company reported $4.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.55 by $0.17. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.29% and a return on equity of 15.90%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 10.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a $0.375 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.05%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meritage Homes news, Chairman Steven J. Hilton acquired 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $74.51 per share, for a total transaction of $819,610.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 811,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,441,915.92. This represents a 1.37 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meritage Homes

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,074,741 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $626,777,000 after buying an additional 26,889 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,773,609 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $363,714,000 after purchasing an additional 74,422 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Meritage Homes in the 4th quarter valued at about $101,695,000. Groupama Asset Managment purchased a new position in Meritage Homes in the 4th quarter valued at about $76,910,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 489,035 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $100,286,000 after purchasing an additional 5,732 shares in the last quarter. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meritage Homes Company 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.