Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) Receives $84.86 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $84.8571.

MTH has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Meritage Homes in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Zelman & Associates raised shares of Meritage Homes to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $100.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $77.00 to $75.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Wedbush reduced their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $103.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 25th.

Meritage Homes Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of MTH opened at $70.06 on Thursday. Meritage Homes has a twelve month low of $59.27 and a twelve month high of $102.91. The company has a market cap of $4.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.30 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a current ratio of 2.16, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.16.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The construction company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.05. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 10.27% and a return on equity of 12.37%. The business had revenue of $1.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.60 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.15 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Meritage Homes will post 9.44 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 16th were paid a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 16th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.47%.

Insider Activity

In other Meritage Homes news, Director Dennis V. Arriola bought 2,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $70.00 per share, with a total value of $154,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,512 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $665,840. This trade represents a 30.09% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 6,950 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $556,069.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 221,320 shares in the company, valued at $17,707,813.20. This trade represents a 3.04% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Arkadios Wealth Advisors increased its position in Meritage Homes by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 5,566 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $373,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its position in Meritage Homes by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 3,439 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $244,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in Meritage Homes by 41.7% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 676 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Meritage Homes by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,658 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $580,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its position in Meritage Homes by 54.9% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 618 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

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.