43,438 Shares in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) Acquired by Great West Life Assurance Co. Can

Great West Life Assurance Co. Can purchased a new position in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH – Get Rating) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 43,438 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,052,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MTH. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,216,167 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $334,047,000 after purchasing an additional 23,652 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,316,547 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $95,450,000 after purchasing an additional 7,448 shares during the period. Macquarie Group Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 870,721 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $63,127,000 after purchasing an additional 4,989 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 815,481 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $59,122,000 after purchasing an additional 36,114 shares during the period. Finally, Greenhaven Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 792,985 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $55,723,000 after purchasing an additional 58,426 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.63% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of MTH stock opened at $102.83 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $91.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $83.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 1.52. Meritage Homes Co. has a fifty-two week low of $62.51 and a fifty-two week high of $107.72.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 26th. The construction company reported $7.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.41 by $0.69. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 29.08% and a net margin of 16.68%. Research analysts expect that Meritage Homes Co. will post 26.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MTH has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wedbush dropped their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $130.00 to $102.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 10th. KeyCorp increased their target price on Meritage Homes from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Meritage Homes from $78.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 22nd. Finally, TheStreet upgraded Meritage Homes from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Meritage Homes currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.00.

About Meritage Homes

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Meritage Homes Corp. designs and builds single family homes. It offers variety of entry-level and first move-up homes. The firm operates through the following segments: Homebuilding and Financial Services. The Homebuilding segment acquires constructs and markets single-detached houses. The Financial Services segment includes the operations of the company’s subsidiary, Carefree Title.