Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• Meritage Homes Corporation has received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from analysts, with a target price averaging $84.86 per share.
• Insider transactions included Director Dennis V. Arriola purchasing 2,200 shares, increasing his ownership by 30.09%, while CEO Phillippe Lord sold 6,950 shares, reducing his ownership by 3.04%.
• The company recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.43 per share, yielding 2.5%, with a low payout ratio of 15.47%.

Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH - Get Free Report) has received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $84.8571.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MTH shares. Zacks Research raised Meritage Homes from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 23rd. Wedbush cut their price objective on Meritage Homes from $103.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 25th. Zelman & Associates upgraded Meritage Homes to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Meritage Homes from $77.00 to $75.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded Meritage Homes from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and lowered their price target for the company from $100.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th.

Insider Transactions at Meritage Homes

In related news, Director Dennis V. Arriola acquired 2,200 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $70.00 per share, with a total value of $154,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 9,512 shares of the company's stock, valued at $665,840. This trade represents a 30.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 6,950 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total value of $556,069.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 221,320 shares in the company, valued at $17,707,813.20. The trade was a 3.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MTH. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 41.7% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 676 shares of the construction company's stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 182.1% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,880 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $204,000 after acquiring an additional 1,859 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 123.0% during the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 29,607 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $2,099,000 after acquiring an additional 16,328 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes during the 1st quarter valued at $1,201,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 100.2% in the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,450 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $599,000 after buying an additional 4,229 shares during the period. 98.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MTH opened at $69.65 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $4.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.26 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.16. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $75.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.18. Meritage Homes has a 1 year low of $59.27 and a 1 year high of $102.91.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The construction company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.60 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 12.37% and a net margin of 10.27%.The company's revenue was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.15 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Meritage Homes will post 9.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 16th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. Meritage Homes's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.47%.

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.

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