Raymond James & Associates Purchases 168,214 Shares of M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:MDC)

Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:MDC) by 23.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 898,855 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 168,214 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates owned 1.20% of M.D.C. worth $49,662,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. CoreCap Advisors LLC bought a new position in M.D.C. in the fourth quarter worth about $320,000. Clearview Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in M.D.C. in the fourth quarter worth about $375,000. Vest Financial LLC bought a new position in M.D.C. in the fourth quarter worth about $248,000. Raymond James Trust N.A. raised its stake in M.D.C. by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 14,776 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $816,000 after buying an additional 706 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of M.D.C. during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. 88.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director David E. Blackford sold 6,200 shares of the 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 23.30% of the company’s stock.

M.D.C. Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE:MDC opened at $62.87 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $62.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $51.49. M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.47 and a 52 week high of $63.00. The company has a quick ratio of 3.92, a current ratio of 9.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The stock has a market cap of $4.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.91 and a beta of 1.54.

M.D.C. (NYSE:MDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The construction company reported $1.56 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 firm had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.08 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. will post 5.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

M.D.C. Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 21st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 7th were issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 6th. M.D.C.’s payout ratio is 41.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MDC. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of M.D.C. in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of M.D.C. from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and raised their target price for the company from $57.00 to $63.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of M.D.C. in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, M.D.C. presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.13.

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.