Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Issues FY24 Earnings Guidance

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) issued an update on its FY24 earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $19.20-20.70 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $17.84. The company issued revenue guidance of $6.0-6.2 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $6.07 billion. Meritage Homes also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 19.200-20.700 EPS.

Meritage Homes Stock Up 2.7 %

Shares of MTH traded up $4.41 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $169.48. The stock had a trading volume of 593,929 shares, compared to its average volume of 339,394. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $159.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $152.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.90 and a beta of 1.77. Meritage Homes has a 1-year low of $109.23 and a 1-year high of $179.68.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The construction company reported $5.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.54 by $1.52. The business had revenue of $1.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 17.63% and a net margin of 12.54%. Sell-side analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 19.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.77%. This is an increase from Meritage Homes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is 13.99%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on MTH shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Meritage Homes from $151.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Meritage Homes from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Zelman & Associates upgraded Meritage Homes from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. StockNews.com upgraded Meritage Homes from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wedbush restated an underperform rating and issued a $148.00 target price on shares of Meritage Homes in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $172.67.

Insider Transactions at Meritage Homes

In other news, CAO Alison Sasser sold 355 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.61, for a total value of $54,176.55. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 869 shares in the company, valued at approximately $132,618.09. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 2,500 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.79, for a total value of $406,975.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 100,266 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,322,302.14. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Alison Sasser sold 355 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.61, for a total transaction of $54,176.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 869 shares in the company, valued at approximately $132,618.09. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,998 shares of company stock worth $635,171 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 2.00% 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.