Assetmark Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 53.6% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 172 shares of the construction company’s stock after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $35,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 718,607 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $116,307,000 after purchasing an additional 17,843 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in Meritage Homes by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 315,931 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $51,133,000 after acquiring an additional 2,460 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its holdings in Meritage Homes by 734.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 272,122 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $55,804,000 after acquiring an additional 239,511 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Meritage Homes by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 244,776 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $50,196,000 after purchasing an additional 21,092 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management boosted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 227,300 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $36,789,000 after purchasing an additional 10,900 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of MTH opened at $177.36 on Tuesday. Meritage Homes Co. has a fifty-two week low of $137.70 and a fifty-two week high of $213.98. The firm has a market cap of $6.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.03 and a beta of 1.82. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $193.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $184.27. 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 (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.29. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.63% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $5.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is 13.58%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on MTH. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Raymond James cut shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Wedbush raised shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $218.17.

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.