Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.17 EPS

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The construction company reported $4.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.55 by $0.17, Zacks reports. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.29% and a return on equity of 16.12%.

Meritage Homes Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of Meritage Homes stock traded down $1.47 during trading on Friday, reaching $79.55. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 74,626 shares, compared to its average volume of 955,355. Meritage Homes has a 52-week low of $73.05 and a 52-week high of $106.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $86.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $92.47. The company has a market cap of $5.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.09 and a beta of 1.87.

Meritage Homes Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th were paid a dividend of $0.375 per share. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 17th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.47%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MTH. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Meritage Homes from $105.00 to $99.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Meritage Homes from $126.00 to $118.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $117.50 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, January 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $98.50 target price (down from $110.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $107.38.

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.