Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Shares Gap Down to $213.69

Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) gapped down prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $213.69, but opened at $205.16. Meritage Homes shares last traded at $208.68, with a volume of 97,602 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Meritage Homes from $173.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Raymond James upped their price objective on Meritage Homes from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Meritage Homes from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com lowered Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note 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 research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.00.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $7.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.70 and a beta of 1.81. The business has a 50 day moving average of $191.92 and a 200 day moving average of $174.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.93, a current ratio of 1.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

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

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is 13.99%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.35, for a total value of $2,003,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,266 shares in the company, valued at $18,084,793.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.35, for a total value of $2,003,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,266 shares in the company, valued at $18,084,793.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Hilla Sferruzza sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 44,570 shares in the company, valued at $9,136,850. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,500 shares of company stock valued at $3,111,080 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Meritage Homes during the 2nd quarter worth $207,000. Aristides Capital LLC purchased a new position in Meritage Homes during the 2nd quarter worth $235,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its holdings in Meritage Homes by 16.8% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,134 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $184,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the period. Creative Planning increased its holdings in Meritage Homes by 24.0% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 10,006 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,619,000 after purchasing an additional 1,937 shares during the period. Finally, Algert Global LLC boosted its position in Meritage Homes by 49.4% during the 2nd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 33,489 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $5,420,000 after acquiring an additional 11,072 shares in the last quarter. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.