Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Cuts Position in Meritage Homes Corporation $MTH

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio reduced its position in shares of Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,352 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 1,675 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $2,301,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its stake in Meritage Homes by 38.6% during the 2nd quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 6,671 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $447,000 after buying an additional 1,857 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Meritage Homes by 21.7% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,506 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $235,000 after buying an additional 626 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Meritage Homes by 21.1% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 40,298 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,699,000 after buying an additional 7,011 shares in the last quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. increased its stake in Meritage Homes by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Greenhaven Associates Inc. now owns 1,491,955 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $99,916,000 after buying an additional 57,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peak Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Meritage Homes during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $493,000. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Meritage Homes Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of Meritage Homes stock opened at $73.66 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.62 and a beta of 1.42. Meritage Homes Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $59.27 and a fifty-two week high of $102.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.16. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $75.20 and a 200 day moving average of $70.31.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The construction company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.60 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 12.37% and a net margin of 10.27%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.15 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Meritage Homes Corporation will post 9.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 16th were given a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 16th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.47%.

Insider Activity at Meritage Homes

In other news, Director Dennis V. Arriola purchased 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $70.00 per share, for a total transaction of $154,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 9,512 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $665,840. This trade represents a 30.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 6,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total value of $556,069.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 221,320 shares in the company, valued at $17,707,813.20. This trade represents a 3.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MTH has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Meritage Homes from $97.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Zacks Research upgraded Meritage Homes from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 23rd. Wedbush dropped their price target on Meritage Homes from $103.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Zelman & Associates upgraded Meritage Homes to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on Meritage Homes from $79.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Meritage Homes has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $88.14.

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.