Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) to Issue $0.75 Quarterly Dividend

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

Meritage Homes has a payout ratio of 14.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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

Shares of NYSE MTH opened at $184.44 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.67 billion, a PE 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $192.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $184.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.75.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.05 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Meritage Homes will post 21.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on MTH. Raymond James cut Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wedbush raised Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $195.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meritage Homes currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $218.17.

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.