StockNews.com Initiates Coverage on M.D.C. (NYSE:MDC)

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of M.D.C. (NYSE:MDC) in a report issued on Tuesday morning. The firm issued a hold rating on the construction company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on MDC. Raymond James restated a market perform rating on shares of M.D.C. in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Evercore ISI lowered M.D.C. from an outperform rating to an in-line rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $57.00 to $63.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $52.13.

M.D.C. Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE:MDC opened at $62.91 on Tuesday. M.D.C. has a 12-month low of $36.47 and a 12-month high of $63.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.91 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 9.76 and a quick ratio of 3.92. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $51.68.

M.D.C. (NYSE:MDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The construction company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.06. M.D.C. had a return on equity of 12.32% and a net margin of 8.64%. The business had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that M.D.C. will post 5.38 EPS for the current year.

M.D.C. Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 21st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 7th were given a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 6th. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.50%. M.D.C.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director David E. Blackford sold 6,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.69, for a total value of $388,678.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,534 shares in the company, valued at $848,446.46. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 23.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of M.D.C.

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. WealthPLAN Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of M.D.C. in the fourth quarter valued at $992,000. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in shares of M.D.C. by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 898,855 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $49,662,000 after buying an additional 168,214 shares during the period. Tudor Investment Corp Et Al lifted its holdings in shares of M.D.C. by 0.8% in the third quarter. Tudor Investment Corp Et Al now owns 117,754 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $4,855,000 after buying an additional 977 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of M.D.C. in the third quarter valued at $1,803,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of M.D.C. by 22.7% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 136,643 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $5,634,000 after buying an additional 25,300 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.08% of the company’s stock.

About M.D.C.

M.DC Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the homebuilding and financial service businesses. Its homebuilding operations include purchasing finished lots or developing lots for the construction and sale primarily of single-family detached homes to first-time and first-time move-up homebuyers under the Richmond American Homes name.