The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Takes Position in Meritage Homes Corporation $MTH

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 35,213 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,953,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MTH. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Meritage Homes by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,901,851 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $190,943,000 after buying an additional 16,338 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its position in Meritage Homes by 58.9% in the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,423,013 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $95,299,000 after acquiring an additional 527,265 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in Meritage Homes by 58.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,058,850 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $75,051,000 after acquiring an additional 391,297 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Meritage Homes in the fourth quarter worth approximately $63,053,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Meritage Homes by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 855,679 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $56,304,000 after acquiring an additional 61,342 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MTH. Zacks Research raised shares of Meritage Homes from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $88.00 target price (up from $86.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $93.00 price target (up from $82.00) on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings raised Meritage Homes from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Zelman & Associates cut Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Meritage Homes currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $79.25.

Meritage Homes Trading Down 2.6%

Shares of MTH stock opened at $67.60 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 1.97. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $74.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $70.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.41 billion, a PE ratio of 14.14, a PEG ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 1.36. Meritage Homes Corporation has a 52-week low of $58.03 and a 52-week high of $85.38.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The construction company reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.30 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $1.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.43 billion. Meritage Homes had a return on equity of 7.13% and a net margin of 6.11%.The business’s revenue was down 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.04 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Meritage Homes Corporation will post 5.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.17%.

About Meritage Homes

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.