Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Has $5.58 Million Stock Holdings in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 103.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,190 shares of the construction company’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,812 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $5,576,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MTH. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its position in Meritage Homes by 734.4% during the third 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. Long Pond Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Meritage Homes in the first quarter valued at $32,303,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Meritage Homes during the first quarter worth $25,495,000. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC acquired a new stake in Meritage Homes in the second quarter valued at $22,887,000. Finally, Boston Partners bought a new position in shares of Meritage Homes in the 1st quarter valued at about $23,106,000. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

NYSE:MTH opened at $183.44 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.93 and a current ratio of 1.75. The firm has a market cap of $6.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.30 and a beta of 1.82. Meritage Homes Co. has a 52 week low of $126.46 and a 52 week high of $213.98. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $195.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $182.26.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.63% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $5.98 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is currently 13.58%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wedbush upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $160.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Wolfe Research upgraded Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Meritage Homes from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $219.00 to $221.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $220.17.

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.