Meritage Homes’ (MTH) Neutral Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

Wedbush reiterated their neutral rating on shares of Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) in a research note published on Tuesday morning,RTT News reports. The brokerage currently has a $103.00 price target on the construction company’s stock, down from their prior price target of $205.00.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on MTH. StockNews.com raised Meritage Homes from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of Meritage Homes from $105.00 to $99.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $98.50 price target (down from $110.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, December 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $102.50 to $117.50 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Raymond James cut Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $108.36.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of MTH stock opened at $74.52 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 1.87. 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 has a 52 week low of $73.89 and a 52 week high of $106.99. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $90.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $92.74.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $2.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 prior year, the business earned $2.99 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a $0.375 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is 13.59%.

Institutional Trading of Meritage Homes

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MTH. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Meritage Homes by 9.4% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 244,776 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $50,196,000 after acquiring an additional 21,092 shares during the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $16,056,000. Castellan Group increased its position in Meritage Homes by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Castellan Group now owns 31,981 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $6,558,000 after purchasing an additional 1,516 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Meritage Homes in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $230,000. Finally, M&T Bank Corp acquired a new stake in Meritage Homes in the third quarter valued at approximately $435,000. 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.