Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) Releases Q1 2026 Earnings Guidance

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) issued an update on its first quarter 2026 earnings guidance on Friday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of 0.870-1.130 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of 1.530. The company issued revenue guidance of -.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MTH. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Meritage Homes from $60.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $82.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research note on Friday, January 16th. UBS Group set a $95.00 target price on shares of Meritage Homes in a report on Friday. Zacks Research lowered shares of Meritage Homes from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Meritage Homes in a report on Monday, December 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $83.50.

Meritage Homes Trading Down 0.8%

MTH stock traded down $0.55 on Friday, reaching $69.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 248,433 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,023,058. The firm has a market cap of $4.89 billion, a PE ratio of 10.99 and a beta of 1.48. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $70.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $71.84. Meritage Homes has a 12-month low of $59.27 and a 12-month high of $84.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The construction company reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.51 billion. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 7.73% and a return on equity of 9.25%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.72 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Meritage Homes will post 9.44 EPS for the current year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 17th were given a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 17th. Meritage Homes’s payout ratio is presently 27.22%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Meritage Homes

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 58.9% during the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,423,013 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $95,299,000 after purchasing an additional 527,265 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 58.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,058,850 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $75,051,000 after purchasing an additional 391,297 shares during the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 727,678 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $48,733,000 after buying an additional 21,759 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Meritage Homes by 4.6% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 351,758 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $23,557,000 after purchasing an additional 15,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Meritage Homes by 102.8% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 319,150 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $22,621,000 after buying an additional 161,806 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Meritage Homes Company Profile

Meritage Homes Corporation is a national homebuilder and residential developer headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. Founded in 1985 as Winchester Homes and later rebranded to Meritage Homes, the company specializes in designing, constructing and selling single‐family detached and attached homes. With a focus on energy efficiency and sustainable building practices, Meritage Homes markets its properties under the GreenSmart program, which integrates high‐performance features aimed at reducing long‐term energy and water consumption for homebuyers.

The company’s core activities encompass land acquisition, residential community planning, home design, construction management and real estate sales.