Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Raised to “Hold” at StockNews.com

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Friday.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $98.50 price objective (down previously from $110.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Wedbush raised Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $80.00 to $97.50 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $102.50 to $117.50 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Raymond James lowered Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $105.00 to $99.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $107.57.

Meritage Homes Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of MTH stock opened at $75.72 on Friday. Meritage Homes has a 1 year low of $73.89 and a 1 year high of $106.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.48 billion, a PE ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $90.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $92.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $2.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.15. The business 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 company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.99 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Meritage Homes

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MTH. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Meritage Homes in the third quarter worth about $28,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in Meritage Homes by 53.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 172 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC grew its position in Meritage Homes by 1,033.3% during the 2nd quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 272 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in Meritage Homes during the 2nd quarter valued at $61,000. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 15.5% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 433 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.