Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Cut to “Market Perform” at Raymond James

Raymond James cut shares of Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

MTH has been the topic of several other reports. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $219.00 to $221.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. Wolfe Research raised Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. StockNews.com lowered Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Wedbush raised Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $218.17.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MTH opened at $190.77 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The company has a market capitalization of $6.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.64 and a beta of 1.82. Meritage Homes has a 12 month low of $129.42 and a 12 month high of $213.98. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $194.75 and a 200-day moving average of $183.52.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.63% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $5.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 21.16 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is currently 13.58%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Meritage Homes

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MTH. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Meritage Homes by 65.7% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 17,259 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $3,539,000 after purchasing an additional 6,843 shares during the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 120,767 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $24,765,000 after buying an additional 8,207 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Meritage Homes in the third quarter valued at about $1,804,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in Meritage Homes by 6.9% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 5,961 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,222,000 after acquiring an additional 385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Phocas Financial Corp. acquired a new position in Meritage Homes during the third quarter worth about $3,883,000. Institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

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.