BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. Purchases 9,128 Shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its holdings in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) by 10.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 95,218 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 9,128 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. owned approximately 0.26% of Meritage Homes worth $16,707,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MTH. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Meritage Homes by 3.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,170,062 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $510,374,000 after buying an additional 151,946 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Meritage Homes by 22.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 779,549 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $135,797,000 after acquiring an additional 143,440 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Meritage Homes by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 523,332 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $91,164,000 after buying an additional 26,682 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 460,118 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $80,153,000 after acquiring an additional 10,885 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Meritage Homes during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $76,297,000. 98.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MTH has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wedbush reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $148.00 price target on shares of Meritage Homes in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Meritage Homes from $219.00 to $221.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Meritage Homes from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $186.80.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MTH traded up $11.11 during trading on Thursday, reaching $201.13. The stock had a trading volume of 268,272 shares, compared to its average volume of 419,304. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $170.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $165.28. Meritage Homes Co. has a 1-year low of $109.23 and a 1-year high of $205.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a current ratio of 1.66. The stock has a market cap of $7.31 billion, a PE ratio of 9.38 and a beta of 1.80.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The construction company reported $5.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.54 by $1.52. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.54% and a return on equity of 17.63%. The company had revenue of $1.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.28 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Meritage Homes Co. will post 20.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is 13.99%.

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.