Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Tuesday.

Several other research firms have also commented on MTH. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $103.00 price objective on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $117.50 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $98.50 target price (down previously from $110.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $126.00 to $118.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meritage Homes presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $106.25.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of MTH opened at $76.70 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.61, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The firm has a market cap of $5.50 billion, a PE ratio of 5.87 and a beta of 1.88. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $79.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $89.13. Meritage Homes has a 12-month low of $69.26 and a 12-month high of $106.99.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The construction company reported $4.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.55 by $0.17. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.29% and a return on equity of 15.90%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 9.44 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th will be given a $0.43 dividend. This is a positive change from Meritage Homes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.24%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.16%.

Insider Activity at Meritage Homes

In other news, Chairman Steven J. Hilton purchased 11,000 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $74.51 per share, for a total transaction of $819,610.00. Following the acquisition, the chairman now directly owns 811,192 shares in the company, valued at $60,441,915.92. This represents a 1.37 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Alison Sasser sold 676 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.03, for a total value of $48,692.28. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 5,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $427,353.99. This represents a 10.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,683 shares of company stock worth $122,547 in the last quarter. 2.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,074,741 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $626,777,000 after purchasing an additional 26,889 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 4.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,773,609 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $363,714,000 after purchasing an additional 74,422 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $101,695,000. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 61.6% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 571,120 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $87,850,000 after purchasing an additional 217,618 shares during the period. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment bought a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $76,910,000. 98.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.