L & S Advisors Inc Takes Position in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

L & S Advisors Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 6,524 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,338,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Comerica Bank grew its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 79,358 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $13,924,000 after acquiring an additional 4,435 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 204.5% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 13,378 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $2,165,000 after acquiring an additional 8,985 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners bought a new position in shares of Meritage Homes during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $23,106,000. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Meritage Homes during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,495,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in Meritage Homes during the 1st quarter valued at $2,359,000. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Meritage Homes Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of MTH stock opened at $177.68 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $6.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.04 and a beta of 1.82. Meritage Homes Co. has a twelve month low of $137.70 and a twelve month high of $213.98. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $192.66 and a 200 day moving average of $184.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The construction company reported $5.34 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 12.63%. The business’s revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $5.98 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Meritage Homes Co. will post 21.27 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.58%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Raymond James lowered Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com lowered Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Wedbush upgraded Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $218.17.

Meritage Homes 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.