Weiss Asset Management LP Takes $916,000 Position in Meritage Homes Corporation $MTH

Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new position in Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 14,820 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $916,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MTH. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,901,851 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $190,943,000 after acquiring an additional 16,338 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Meritage Homes by 58.9% during the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,423,013 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $95,299,000 after purchasing an additional 527,265 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Meritage Homes by 58.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,058,850 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $75,051,000 after purchasing an additional 391,297 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Meritage Homes in the fourth quarter worth about $63,053,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 855,679 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $56,304,000 after buying an additional 61,342 shares during the period. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MTH has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America cut their price objective on Meritage Homes from $74.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Truist Financial set a $80.00 target price on shares of Meritage Homes and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $93.00 price objective (up from $82.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.00.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

Meritage Homes stock opened at $73.36 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.96 and a quick ratio of 1.96. The stock has a market cap of $4.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $73.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $70.48. Meritage Homes Corporation has a 1 year low of $58.03 and a 1 year high of $85.38.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 16th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is 35.23%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Meritage Homes news, CAO Alison Sasser sold 1,273 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.11, for a total value of $79,066.03. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 7,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $474,147.74. This represents a 14.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Meritage Homes Profile

Meritage Homes Corporation is a national homebuilder and residential developer headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. Founded in 1985 as Winchester Homes and later rebranded to Meritage Homes, the company specializes in designing, constructing and selling single?family detached and attached homes. With a focus on energy efficiency and sustainable building practices, Meritage Homes markets its properties under the GreenSmart program, which integrates high?performance features aimed at reducing long?term energy and water consumption for homebuyers.

The company’s core activities encompass land acquisition, residential community planning, home design, construction management and real estate sales.