Meritage Homes Stock Scheduled to Split on Friday, January 3rd (NYSE:MTH)

Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) shares are scheduled to split on Friday, January 3rd. The 2-1 split was announced on Monday, November 25th. The newly minted shares will be distributed to shareholders after the market closes on Tuesday, December 31st.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

MTH stock opened at $154.61 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.00 and a beta of 1.82. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $183.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $184.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75. Meritage Homes has a 52-week low of $147.77 and a 52-week high of $213.98.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.63% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $5.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 17th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.58%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on MTH shares. Wedbush raised shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $197.00 price objective (down previously from $220.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $215.14.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meritage Homes

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 9.4% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 244,776 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $50,196,000 after acquiring an additional 21,092 shares in the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes in the third quarter worth $16,056,000. Castellan Group increased its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 5.0% in the third quarter. Castellan Group now owns 31,981 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $6,558,000 after acquiring an additional 1,516 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meritage Homes in the third quarter valued at $230,000. Finally, M&T Bank Corp purchased a new position in shares of Meritage Homes in the third quarter valued at $435,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

About Meritage Homes

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.