Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Buys 506 Shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 17.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,481 shares of the construction company’s stock after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $535,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allworth Financial LP grew its position in Meritage Homes by 545.5% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 213 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its position in Meritage Homes by 53.6% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 172 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Meritage Homes in the fourth quarter valued at $92,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in Meritage Homes by 235.1% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 677 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $104,000 after purchasing an additional 475 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Archer Investment Corp grew its position in Meritage Homes by 42.1% in the third quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 675 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $138,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Meritage Homes

In other Meritage Homes news, 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 5,933 shares in the company, valued at $427,353.99. The trade was a 10.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Steven J. Hilton acquired 11,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $74.51 per share, with a total value of $819,610.00. Following the purchase, the chairman now directly owns 811,192 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,441,915.92. This represents a 1.37 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,683 shares of company stock worth $122,547. 2.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

NYSE MTH opened at $74.82 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $79.56 and a 200-day moving average of $89.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.61. The stock has a market cap of $5.37 billion, a PE ratio of 5.72 and a beta of 1.88. Meritage Homes Co. has a 52-week low of $69.26 and a 52-week high of $106.99.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The construction company reported $4.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Meritage Homes Co. will post 9.44 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.30%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. This is a boost from Meritage Homes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.16%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $103.00 target price on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Raymond James cut shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $126.00 to $118.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target 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. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $106.25.

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.