Brokerages Set Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Target Price at $215.14

Shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $215.14.

MTH has been the subject of several research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Wedbush upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $160.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Raymond James lowered Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st.

Meritage Homes Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:MTH opened at $154.61 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $5.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.00 and a beta of 1.82. 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 12 month low of $147.77 and a 12 month high of $213.98. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $183.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $184.37.

Meritage Homes shares are scheduled to split on the morning of Friday, January 3rd. The 2-1 split was announced on Monday, November 25th. The newly minted shares will be issued to shareholders after the market closes on Tuesday, December 31st.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.98 earnings per share. Meritage Homes’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted 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 valued at $55,804,000 after purchasing an additional 239,511 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new position in shares of Meritage Homes in the third quarter valued at about $44,029,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes during the 3rd quarter worth about $36,365,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 75.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 347,227 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $71,206,000 after buying an additional 148,898 shares during the period. Finally, Mizuho Markets Americas LLC acquired a new position in Meritage Homes in the 2nd quarter valued at about $22,887,000. 98.44% of the stock is currently 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.