Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.48

Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 20th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.48 per share by the construction company on Wednesday, September 30th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th.

Meritage Homes has a dividend payout ratio of 21.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Meritage Homes to earn $5.90 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.5%.

Meritage Homes Stock Down 4.1%

Shares of NYSE:MTH opened at $71.14 on Friday. Meritage Homes has a 12-month low of $58.03 and a 12-month high of $85.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.97, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $75.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $70.40. The firm has a market cap of $4.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.88, a PEG ratio of 5.43 and a beta of 1.36.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The construction company reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by $0.12. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 6.11% and a return on equity of 7.13%. The firm had revenue of $1.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.43 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.04 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Meritage Homes will post 5.04 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MTH. Zelman & Associates lowered shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Meritage Homes from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 25th. Weiss Ratings raised Meritage Homes from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. 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, Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $79.25.

Meritage Homes Company 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.