Archer Investment Corp Acquires 200 Shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

Archer Investment Corp grew its holdings in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 42.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 675 shares of the construction company’s stock after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Archer Investment Corp’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $138,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in Meritage Homes by 22.8% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 12,874 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $2,259,000 after acquiring an additional 2,392 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in Meritage Homes by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 7,347 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $1,289,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC raised its stake in Meritage Homes by 11.6% during the 1st quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,898 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,210,000 after buying an additional 718 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL bought a new position in shares of Meritage Homes during the 1st quarter valued at $215,000. Finally, Bahl & Gaynor Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Meritage Homes in the 1st quarter worth $10,486,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wedbush raised Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $160.00 to $195.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of 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. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $218.17.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

NYSE:MTH opened at $179.41 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $193.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $183.99. Meritage Homes Co. has a 52 week low of $137.70 and a 52 week high of $213.98. The stock has a market cap of $6.49 billion, a PE ratio of 8.12 and a beta of 1.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.29. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is 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.