Brokerages Set Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Price Target at $178.25

Shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the six research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $178.25.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on MTH shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Meritage Homes from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Wedbush restated an “underperform” rating and set a $148.00 price target on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th.

Meritage Homes Trading Up 0.7 %

MTH stock opened at $155.64 on Friday. Meritage Homes has a 1-year low of $109.23 and a 1-year high of $189.96. The firm has a market cap of $5.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.26 and a beta of 1.80. The business’s 50 day moving average is $170.94 and its 200-day moving average is $165.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The construction company reported $5.06 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.54 by $1.52. The business had revenue of $1.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 17.63% and a net margin of 12.54%. Equities analysts anticipate that Meritage Homes will post 20.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.93%. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is 13.99%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Meritage Homes by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,170,062 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $510,374,000 after buying an additional 151,946 shares during the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. boosted its position in Meritage Homes by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 826,791 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $144,027,000 after buying an additional 12,841 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Meritage Homes by 22.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 779,549 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $135,797,000 after buying an additional 143,440 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in Meritage Homes by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 523,332 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $91,164,000 after buying an additional 26,682 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP lifted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 13.5% in the 1st quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 490,660 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $86,091,000 after purchasing an additional 58,350 shares during the period. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by 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.