Meritage Homes Corporation $MTH Stock Holdings Lifted by Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC

Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its stake in Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) by 14.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,424 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 1,898 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $1,033,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 5.8% in the first quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 3,439 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $244,000 after buying an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 136.0% in the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,901 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $277,000 after buying an additional 2,248 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 100.7% in the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 30,325 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $2,149,000 after buying an additional 15,218 shares in the last quarter. Reyes Financial Architecture Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 182.0% in the first quarter. Reyes Financial Architecture Inc. now owns 1,255 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $89,000 after buying an additional 810 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 151.0% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 6,202 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $440,000 after buying an additional 3,731 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MTH shares. Wedbush reduced their target price on Meritage Homes from $103.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Meritage Homes from $70.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 28th. Bank of America reduced their target price on Meritage Homes from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 10th. Evercore ISI lowered Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $100.00 to $82.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Meritage Homes in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $84.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meritage Homes

In related news, Director Dennis V. Arriola purchased 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $70.00 per share, for a total transaction of $154,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 9,512 shares in the company, valued at approximately $665,840. The trade was a 30.09% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 6,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $556,069.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 221,320 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,707,813.20. This represents a 3.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Trading Up 0.4%

Meritage Homes stock opened at $70.06 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.18. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Meritage Homes Corporation has a 12 month low of $59.27 and a 12 month high of $102.91. The stock has a market cap of $4.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.30 and a beta of 1.42.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The construction company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.05. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 10.27% and a return on equity of 12.37%. The business had revenue of $1.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.15 EPS. Meritage Homes’s revenue was down 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Meritage Homes Corporation will post 9.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 16th. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is currently 15.47%.

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.