New York State Teachers Retirement System Decreases Stock Position in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

New York State Teachers Retirement System cut its stake in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 0.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 49,276 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 400 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.14% of Meritage Homes worth $10,105,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 2.5% in the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 718,607 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $116,307,000 after purchasing an additional 17,843 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP lifted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 13.5% during the 1st quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 490,660 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $86,091,000 after buying an additional 58,350 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 315,931 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $51,133,000 after buying an additional 2,460 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 734.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 272,122 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $55,804,000 after buying an additional 239,511 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 227,300 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $36,789,000 after buying an additional 10,900 shares during the last quarter. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MTH has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James lifted their price target on Meritage Homes from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com downgraded Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Meritage Homes from $219.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. Wedbush raised Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meritage Homes presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $220.17.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of MTH stock opened at $183.44 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.66 billion, a PE 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 stock’s 50-day moving average price is $195.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $182.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.93, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.98 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.09 EPS 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.58%.

Meritage Homes 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.