Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys Shares of 29,900 M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:MDC)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:MDC) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 29,900 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,652,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MDC. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of M.D.C. in the 4th quarter worth approximately $263,371,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of M.D.C. by 60.6% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,492,733 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $137,723,000 after acquiring an additional 940,810 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of M.D.C. by 259.7% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 593,177 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $18,744,000 after acquiring an additional 428,286 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of M.D.C. in the 4th quarter worth approximately $13,291,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of M.D.C. by 96.8% in the 2nd quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 646,753 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $30,249,000 after acquiring an additional 318,101 shares during the period. 88.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of M.D.C. in a research note on Friday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of M.D.C. from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $57.00 to $63.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of M.D.C. in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, M.D.C. presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.13.

M.D.C. Price Performance

NYSE MDC opened at $62.98 on Friday. M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $36.47 and a 12 month high of $63.00. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $62.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 9.76 and a quick ratio of 3.92. The company has a market capitalization of $4.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.93 and a beta of 1.54.

M.D.C. (NYSE:MDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The construction company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.06. M.D.C. had a net margin of 8.64% and a return on equity of 12.32%. The business had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.08 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. will post 5.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director David E. Blackford sold 6,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.69, for a total transaction of $388,678.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 13,534 shares in the company, valued at $848,446.46. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 23.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

M.D.C. Profile

M.DC Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the homebuilding and financial service businesses. Its homebuilding operations include purchasing finished lots or developing lots for the construction and sale primarily of single-family detached homes to first-time and first-time move-up homebuyers under the Richmond American Homes name.