Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Has $654,000 Stake in Meritage Homes Corporation $MTH

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in Meritage Homes Corporation (NYSE:MTH) by 22.9% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,761 shares of the construction company’s stock after buying an additional 1,821 shares during the period. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Meritage Homes were worth $654,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MTH. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 166.5% in the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 581 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 363 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 54.9% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 618 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. raised its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 100.0% in the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 660 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Meritage Homes in the first quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group raised its position in shares of Meritage Homes by 5,941.7% in the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 725 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 713 shares in the last quarter. 98.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Zelman & Associates upgraded shares of Meritage Homes to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Meritage Homes from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $100.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Meritage Homes from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Meritage Homes in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wedbush lowered their price objective on shares of Meritage Homes from $103.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $84.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meritage Homes

In other news, CEO Phillippe Lord sold 6,950 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Dennis V. Arriola purchased 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $70.00 per share, with a total value of $154,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 9,512 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $665,840. This represents a 30.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Meritage Homes Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of NYSE:MTH opened at $70.56 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $74.72 and a 200-day moving average of $70.20. The company has a market capitalization of $5.02 billion, a PE ratio of 6.34 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.16. Meritage Homes Corporation has a 52-week low of $59.27 and a 52-week high of $98.74.

Meritage Homes (NYSE:MTH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The construction company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) 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 the consensus estimate of $1.60 billion. Meritage Homes had a net margin of 10.27% and a return on equity of 12.37%. The company’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 earned $3.15 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Meritage Homes Corporation will post 9.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Meritage Homes Announces Dividend

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. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 16th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Meritage Homes’s dividend payout ratio is 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.