Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Receives $178.25 Average PT from Analysts

Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $178.25.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on MTH shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Meritage Homes from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $148.00 price target on shares of Meritage Homes in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

NYSE MTH opened at $161.85 on Friday. Meritage Homes has a twelve month low of $109.23 and a twelve month high of $189.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a current ratio of 1.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.88 billion, a PE ratio of 7.55 and a beta of 1.78. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $171.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $166.00.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The construction company reported $5.06 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.54 by $1.52. The firm had revenue of $1.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 17.63% and a net margin of 12.54%. Research analysts anticipate that Meritage Homes will post 20.27 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is 13.99%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,170,062 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $510,374,000 after buying an additional 151,946 shares in the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. raised its stake in Meritage Homes by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 826,791 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $144,027,000 after buying an additional 12,841 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 22.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 779,549 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $135,797,000 after purchasing an additional 143,440 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meritage Homes by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 523,332 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $91,164,000 after buying an additional 26,682 shares during the period. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 13.5% during the 1st quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 490,660 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $86,091,000 after acquiring an additional 58,350 shares during the period. 98.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.