Analysts Set Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Target Price at $215.14

Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $215.14.

MTH has been the subject of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Wedbush upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $160.00 to $195.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $197.00 price target (down previously from $220.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a report on Friday, December 13th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its stake in Meritage Homes by 4.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,773,609 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $363,714,000 after purchasing an additional 74,422 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in Meritage Homes by 2.5% during the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 718,607 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $116,307,000 after buying an additional 17,843 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 489,035 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $100,286,000 after buying an additional 5,732 shares in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP grew its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 26.9% in the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 483,159 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $99,081,000 after buying an additional 102,502 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 75.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 347,227 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $71,206,000 after acquiring an additional 148,898 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

MTH stock opened at $156.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $5.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.07 and a beta of 1.83. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $179.64 and its 200 day moving average is $183.80. Meritage Homes has a 52 week low of $147.77 and a 52 week high of $213.98. 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 shares are set to split on the morning of Friday, January 3rd. The 2-1 split was announced on Monday, November 25th. The newly minted shares will be distributed to shareholders after the market closes on Tuesday, December 31st.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.29. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.98 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is currently 13.58%.

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.