Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Price Target Raised to $221.00

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) had its price objective increased by Evercore ISI from $219.00 to $221.00 in a research note published on Monday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Evercore ISI currently has an outperform rating on the construction company’s stock.

MTH has been the subject of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Wedbush reaffirmed an underperform rating and set a $148.00 price objective on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Meritage Homes from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $186.80.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MTH opened at $190.03 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.66. The company has a market cap of $6.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.86 and a beta of 1.80. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $170.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $165.28. Meritage Homes has a 1-year low of $109.23 and a 1-year high of $193.53.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The construction company reported $5.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.54 by $1.52. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.54% and a return on equity of 17.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.28 billion. Analysts forecast that Meritage Homes will post 20.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.99%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MTH. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Meritage Homes during the fourth quarter worth approximately $76,297,000. Long Pond Capital LP acquired a new position in Meritage Homes during the first quarter worth $32,303,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 3.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,170,062 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $510,374,000 after acquiring an additional 151,946 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes during the 1st quarter worth $25,495,000. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 22.5% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 779,549 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $135,797,000 after purchasing an additional 143,440 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.