Meritage Homes Co. (MTH) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 17th

Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 21st,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be given a dividend of 0.75 per share by the construction company on Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th.

Meritage Homes has a dividend payout ratio of 14.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Meritage Homes to earn $21.47 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 14.0%.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Meritage Homes stock opened at $184.44 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.35 and a beta of 1.82. Meritage Homes has a 52 week low of $137.70 and a 52 week high of $213.98. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $192.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $184.26.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MTH has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Wedbush upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Raymond James lowered Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $218.17.

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.