Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Rating Lowered to Sell at StockNews.com

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $197.00 target price (down previously from $220.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday. Wedbush raised Meritage Homes from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $160.00 to $195.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Meritage Homes from $210.00 to $198.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Meritage Homes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $235.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Raymond James cut Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Meritage Homes presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $215.14.

Meritage Homes Price Performance

Shares of Meritage Homes stock traded down $9.00 during trading on Friday, hitting $168.45. 741,693 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 408,812. The company has a market cap of $6.09 billion, a PE ratio of 7.63 and a beta of 1.82. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $186.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $184.83. Meritage Homes has a twelve month low of $147.77 and a twelve month high of $213.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.75 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Shares of Meritage Homes are set to split before the market opens on Friday, January 3rd. The 2-1 split was announced on Monday, November 25th. The newly issued shares will be payable to shareholders after the closing bell on Tuesday, December 31st.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MTH. CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 433 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in Meritage Homes by 53.6% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 172 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. boosted its holdings in Meritage Homes by 2.9% during the second quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 2,288 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $370,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,719 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $558,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 10,126 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,639,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Meritage Homes

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.