Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Price Target Lowered to $118.00 at UBS Group

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) had its target price trimmed by UBS Group from $126.00 to $118.00 in a report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the construction company’s stock.

MTH has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Raymond James lowered shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $103.00 price objective (down from $205.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research note on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on Meritage Homes from $105.00 to $99.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $102.50 to $117.50 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $109.56.

Meritage Homes Trading Down 2.8 %

MTH stock opened at $74.07 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Meritage Homes has a twelve month low of $73.05 and a twelve month high of $106.99. The company has a market cap of $2.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 1.82. The business has a fifty day moving average of $89.53 and a 200-day moving average of $92.51.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $2.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.99 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were given a dividend of $0.375 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.03%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.58%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meritage Homes

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 4.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,773,609 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $363,714,000 after purchasing an additional 74,422 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 17,843 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 489,035 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $100,286,000 after acquiring an additional 5,732 shares in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 26.9% in the third quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 483,159 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $99,081,000 after acquiring an additional 102,502 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its holdings in Meritage Homes by 75.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 347,227 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $71,206,000 after acquiring an additional 148,898 shares in the last quarter. 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.