Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. Makes New $433,000 Investment in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH)

Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Meritage Homes Co. (NYSE:MTH) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 2,488 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $433,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MTH. Evergreen Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Meritage Homes by 3.3% in the third quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 2,380 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $291,000 after buying an additional 77 shares during the period. Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its stake in Meritage Homes by 91.6% during the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 205 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in Meritage Homes by 6.2% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 1,979 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $242,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the period. Advisor Partners II LLC increased its stake in Meritage Homes by 5.2% in the third quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC now owns 2,438 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $298,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 3.3% during the third quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 4,308 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $527,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. 98.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on MTH shares. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Meritage Homes from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $148.00 price target on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Zelman & Associates raised Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. StockNews.com raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $151.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.67.

Insider Transactions at Meritage Homes

In related news, CAO Alison Sasser sold 231 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.99, for a total value of $35,340.69. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 1,859 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $284,408.41. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Meritage Homes news, CAO Alison Sasser sold 231 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.99, for a total value of $35,340.69. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,859 shares in the company, valued at $284,408.41. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 2,500 shares of Meritage Homes stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.79, for a total value of $406,975.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 100,266 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,322,302.14. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,998 shares of company stock worth $635,171 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Stock Performance

Shares of MTH stock opened at $177.04 on Monday. Meritage Homes Co. has a 12 month low of $109.23 and a 12 month high of $183.25. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $161.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $155.12. The firm has a market cap of $6.43 billion, a PE ratio of 8.26 and a beta of 1.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The construction company reported $5.06 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.54 by $1.52. The company had revenue of $1.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 12.54% and a return on equity of 17.63%. Equities research analysts expect that Meritage Homes Co. will post 20.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is a positive change from Meritage Homes’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is 13.99%.

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.