Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Raised to Strong-Buy at Truist Financial

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) was upgraded by research analysts at Truist Financial to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

MTH has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Evercore set a $77.00 price target on shares of Meritage Homes and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Meritage Homes from $78.00 to $76.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Wall Street Zen raised Meritage Homes from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Finally, UBS Group set a $95.00 target price on Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.33.

Meritage Homes Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of MTH opened at $71.32 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. Meritage Homes has a 52 week low of $59.27 and a 52 week high of $84.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.28, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.46. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $73.35 and a 200-day moving average of $72.48.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The construction company reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.12. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 9.28% and a net margin of 7.73%.The firm had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.72 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meritage Homes will post 9.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 32,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.49, for a total value of $2,510,401.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 260,389 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,917,154.61. This represents a 11.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Javier Feliciano sold 3,580 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.24, for a total transaction of $272,939.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 44,935 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,425,844.40. This represents a 7.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 47,622 shares of company stock valued at $3,640,273 over the last 90 days. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Meritage Homes in the second quarter valued at approximately $75,148,000. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Meritage Homes by 44.3% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 1,987,850 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $143,980,000 after buying an additional 609,866 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its position in Meritage Homes by 58.9% during the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,423,013 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $95,299,000 after buying an additional 527,265 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes during the third quarter worth $37,477,000. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment boosted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 100.0% in the second quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 1,000,000 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $66,970,000 after acquiring an additional 500,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Company Profile

Meritage Homes Corporation is a national homebuilder and residential developer headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. Founded in 1985 as Winchester Homes and later rebranded to Meritage Homes, the company specializes in designing, constructing and selling single‐family detached and attached homes. With a focus on energy efficiency and sustainable building practices, Meritage Homes markets its properties under the GreenSmart program, which integrates high‐performance features aimed at reducing long‐term energy and water consumption for homebuyers.

The company’s core activities encompass land acquisition, residential community planning, home design, construction management and real estate sales.