South Dakota Investment Council trimmed its stake in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH – Get Rating) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 85,966 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 2,038 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $7,926,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MTH. Bailard Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes during the 4th quarter worth approximately $267,000. Watershed Asset Management L.L.C. lifted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Watershed Asset Management L.L.C. now owns 3,590 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $252,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 37.2% during the 4th quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,701 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $603,000 after acquiring an additional 1,546 shares during the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 819,751 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $75,581,000 after acquiring an additional 26,766 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Carlson Capital L P lifted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Carlson Capital L P now owns 153,045 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $10,754,000 after acquiring an additional 4,486 shares during the last quarter. 95.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on MTH shares. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $132.00 price target on shares of Meritage Homes in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $129.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, March 6th. Credit Suisse Group lifted their target price on Meritage Homes from $106.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Meritage Homes from $87.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 12th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $115.14.
Meritage Homes Stock Up 4.8 %
Shares of MTH stock opened at $128.05 on Monday. Meritage Homes Co. has a 1-year low of $62.51 and a 1-year high of $130.68. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $114.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $99.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.89 and a quick ratio of 1.72. The company has a market cap of $4.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.23 and a beta of 1.58.
Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 26th. The construction company reported $3.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.51 by $1.03. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 23.99% and a net margin of 14.44%. The firm had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $5.79 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Meritage Homes Co. will post 13.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 14th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.84%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.41%.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Meritage Homes news, CAO Alison Sasser sold 345 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.16, for a total transaction of $39,385.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $100,460.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Meritage Homes news, CAO Alison Sasser sold 345 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.16, for a total transaction of $39,385.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $100,460.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Clinton Szubinski sold 776 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.16, for a total value of $88,588.16. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 3,615 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $412,688.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,683 shares of company stock valued at $1,290,994. 2.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
About Meritage Homes
Meritage Homes Corp. engages in the design and construction of single family attached and detached homes. It operates through the Homebuilding and Financial Services segments. The Homebuilding segment acquires and develops lands, constructs homes, markets and sells those homes, and provides warranty and customer services.
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