Analysts Set Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) PT at $208.00

Shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $208.00.

MTH has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Meritage Homes from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Meritage Homes from $173.00 to $197.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on Meritage Homes from $148.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com cut Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 14th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Hilla Sferruzza sold 2,500 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.00, for a total value of $512,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 44,570 shares in the company, valued at $9,136,850. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.35, for a total transaction of $2,003,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,266 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,084,793.10. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Hilla Sferruzza sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.00, for a total value of $512,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 44,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,136,850. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,500 shares of company stock worth $3,111,080 over the last three months. 2.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meritage Homes

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. CWM LLC grew its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 433 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $89,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 2,288 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $370,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,689 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $296,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 1,842 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $298,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 16.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 676 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $119,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meritage Homes Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of MTH stock opened at $196.42 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $7.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.16 and a beta of 1.80. Meritage Homes has a one year low of $109.23 and a one year high of $213.98. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $194.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $179.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.93 and a quick ratio of 1.93.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The construction company reported $6.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.17 by $1.14. The company had revenue of $1.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.57 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 12.98%. The business’s revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $5.02 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 21.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is 13.99%.

Meritage Homes Company 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.