Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd Sells 267 Shares of Meritage Homes Corporation $MTH

Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd trimmed its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) by 31.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 593 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 267 shares during the quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $40,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MTH. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 96.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,999,889 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $567,032,000 after purchasing an additional 3,925,148 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 93.9% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,926,900 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $207,456,000 after purchasing an additional 1,417,024 shares during the last quarter. Long Pond Capital LP lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 592.7% during the first quarter. Long Pond Capital LP now owns 1,125,995 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $79,811,000 after purchasing an additional 963,438 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 278.1% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,071,802 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $75,969,000 after purchasing an additional 788,323 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 95.7% during the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,352,648 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $95,876,000 after purchasing an additional 661,310 shares during the last quarter. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on MTH shares. Zacks Research upgraded Meritage Homes from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Wedbush cut their price target on Meritage Homes from $103.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Meritage Homes from $70.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Zelman & Associates upgraded Meritage Homes to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Meritage Homes in a research note on Saturday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $84.86.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of Meritage Homes stock opened at $71.39 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.08 billion, a PE ratio of 6.42 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.16. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $74.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $70.36. Meritage Homes Corporation has a one year low of $59.27 and a one year high of $98.74.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The construction company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.99 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.60 billion. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 10.27% and a return on equity of 12.37%. The firm’s revenue was down 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.15 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Meritage Homes Corporation will post 9.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th were issued a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 16th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is currently 15.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Meritage Homes news, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 6,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total value of $556,069.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 221,320 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,707,813.20. The trade was a 3.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.20% 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.